Animorphs: The Hunt
by Shadowblade217
Summary: There's a new girl in Marco's life, and he couldn't be happier. But lately, he's been noticing some... unusual things about her. Who is she, really? What does she want? And how is she connected to a mysterious new Yeerk project?
1. Chapter 1

ANIMORPHS

The Hunt

By Sam Vincent and Rio Acord

**CHAPTER 1**

**Tobias**

My name is Tobias.

Just Tobias. No last name. No middle initial. Not that I need one anymore. I haven't used my last name in a long time.

The other Animorphs can't tell you where they live, but I can. I live in a meadow out in the forest. A lot of animals live there, including mice, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, and bobcats. But there are no red-tailed hawks.

Except me.

I've been living here for what seems like a long time. I know it hasn't really been that long, but it feels that way sometimes.

Wondering why I'm a bird, not a human? Long story. Wondering how I got this way? Longer story.

Here's the short version:

Earth is being invaded.

Right here. Right now. All over the planet.

You're probably wondering why you've never heard anything about this, right? Well, that's because you wouldn't know about it unless they'd already taken you.

They're called Yeerks. They don't look very threatening. Just gray slugs, about the size of rats. You could crush one under your foot and it wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. But that's just in their natural state.

The Yeerks are a parasite species. Like tapeworms, I guess. Only they don't infest your stomach. They enter your brain, tie into your nervous system, and take complete control of your body. The Yeerk controls your every action. And there's nothing you can do about it.

Well, there is one thing. You can watch helplessly as the Yeerk reads your memories and turns you into a helpless slave to help them conquer planet Earth.

So what does this have to do with me being a bird? Well, fortunately, humans aren't alone in this. There's another species fighting the Yeerks. The Andalites. A few months ago, a dying Andalite prince named Elfangor crashed on the surface of Earth and gave me and four other human teenagers a weapon to help us fight the Yeerks. The power to morph. A power that can be both a blessing and a curse. Just ask me.

See, the morphing power has a downside: If you stay in morph for more than two hours, you stay forever.

Like me. I got trapped inside the body of a red-tailed hawk. It's not so bad, actually. I still have my friends, and I can still fight the Yeerks. I even got my morphing power back eventually. I can even morph into my old human body. There's a catch, though. If I stay human for too long, I'd get stuck there. And I wouldn't be able to fight any more.

So, whether I like it or not, I'm stuck like this.

I was sitting on a branch, overlooking the meadow. My meadow, actually. I was watching the grass of the field, waiting to see if anything moved underneath, which would show me the location of prey on the ground below them.

Sure enough, after I'd been sitting there for a few minutes, the grass started twitching in one particular area. I watched for a minute, to make sure that there was actually something there and then a little longer to make sure that whatever was under there had no idea I was there, and then unfolded my wings and jumped off the branch.

I saw that my prey was a mouse right before I snatched it up in my talons.

Well, for me, that's lunch. As a human, before I met Elfangor and got this power, I would have been nauseated by this. But, over time, I've gotten used to it. I tell myself sometimes that it's simple. Try to understand that the human must feed the hawk. It has to happen.

After I finished eating the mouse, I unfolded my wings, jumped off the branch, flapped, and rose into the air. I changed course and flew towards the school that my friends attended. I was going to check up on them. Well, Jake, Rachel, Marco and Cassie, anyway. Ax didn't go to school here. Ax didn't go to school anywhere. He lives in the woods, like me, so I see him more often.

Right about then was when something weird happened.

I was flying over the street in front of the school. I was about two hundred feet up, but I could see every detail of what was going on down on the ground. Hawks have amazing vision. If I was at home plate and someone opened a book in right field, I'd be able to read it. That was why what I saw next just didn't make sense.

I saw a girl walking out of the trees toward school. Now, what was odd at first was that it looked like she'd been coming from the direction of the woods. But then I noticed something really strange.

Hawk eyes don't get fooled very often, so what they see is usually what's actually there. Which was why I stared, incredulous, when what looked an awful lot like a white-furred tail slipped down from under her jacket.

As soon as I saw this, she hurriedly reached back and stuffed the "tail" back under the waistband of her worn-out jeans. Then she turned around and kept walking towards school.

That had been weird. But as I flew over towards the other buildings, I tried to put it out of my mind. I mean, come on. No human had a tail. It was probably one of those gag tails that you buy at costume stores. She was probably going to pull it out at lunch or something to get a few laughs.

Nothing to worry about.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**Marco**

I was sitting in class, trying to keep from dozing off while our biology teacher kept droning on about the wonders of the digestive system, when the class door opened. Well, anything to break out of the fog of dullness filling the room. I looked over at the door casually… and froze.

A girl was standing in the doorway. And I mean, _wow_. She was an inch or so taller than me. Red hair, lightly tanned skin, and a beautiful baseball cap that complimented her clothes well. Her eyes were a soft orange and she had the innocent, unsure smile that turned heads when she walked in. Well, my head, anyway, but I'm sure the others looked too.

Orange eyes? She must wear contacts. Now that was good taste in eyewear.

"Class, this is our newest student, Susan–" The teacher looked at the clipboard with a confused expression on his face. "T… T… Tran… yip?..."

"Taronyutsyip," she said softly. "It's pronounced Teh-ron-joots-jip."

And a beautiful name, too. Tehrs…ron…jip. Something like that, anyway. I looked to my right. An empty seat. _AN EMPTY SEAT!_

"THANK YOU, LORD!" I yelled. That was when I realized that I'd yelled that part out loud.

_Oops._

I looked around and saw that the entire class was staring at me. "I… got one right," I announced coolly. The teacher looked at me. "But I didn't ask a question, Marco."

Uh-oh. I quickly thought up a comeback. "I skipped ahead." A beautiful save.

"Now, please, take your seat, Susan, so I can continue the lesson." Susan delicately walked over and sat down… next to me!

"Yes!" I whispered this time, so I didn't attract any more attention than I usually get. The other students are like paparazzi, really. They can't wait to find a reason to look at me.

Mr. Boring and his ramblings went on. Something about an apple falling on some guy's head forever ago. I didn't care enough to listen to anything else. All that mattered now was that the most beautiful girl in the school was sitting next to me.

The bell rang, and I was OUT OF THERE. Maybe I would be walking in the same direction as Susan Tronstip.

I rushed to the front of the school and leaned on the wall like a really cool ladies' man I saw in a movie once. Susan came through the doors and started walking along the sidewalk. I ran over to catch up with her.

"Hey, Susan. So, you take this way home too?" I asked.

"Well, I assume everyone walks off the school grounds before going home," she said caringly.

She took the sidewalk down to the left of school. Not my direction home, but a little more walking is good for you, right? So I followed her.

"See, we do take the same way home," I stated.

"I guess so," she replied, still softly. We walked for a while in silence.

"So… do you, maybe… want to go to dinner sometime?" I asked.

Almost as soon as I finished, she blurted out, "Yes! I mean, sure. Where?" she asked.

"How about that new Chinese place down the street? I think it's called Chow 'N Noodles."

"When?" she asked with a gleam in her green eyes.

Green? She must have taken her contacts out.

"How about 2 o'clock tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.

"Doesn't school end at 3?" she asked, confused.

"Tomorrow's Saturday," I reminded her. She stared at me, even more confused now. I tried to clarify things.

"There's no school on Saturdays."

"Oh, yes, I… forgot. Sure, I can come."

I went running down the sidewalk as fast as I could to make sure my schedule was open tomorrow. And if it wasn't, I'd force it open.

I passed Rachel and Cassie and kept running. Rachel made some crack about my running, but then again, she'd insult me about anything I did. Rachel and I are always making jokes at each other's expense. She keeps hitting me with more insults, although mine are much better.

I burst through my front door as soon as I could find the right key to unlock it. My dad was a little annoyed at first because he was watching a game, but he seemed to realize there was a reason for my behavior once he saw my face. He calls it my "I've got a date" face.

"Okay, who is it this time?" he asked.

"Susan!" I yelled. I was almost screaming out of excitement. Imagine it, me getting a date with the prettiest girl in the school – the first day she attended, too!

"Susan what?" my dad asked.

"Susan… something with a 'T'," I said, a little bothered that I couldn't remember.

"When?"

"Tomorrow!" I was still yelling a little from all the excitement. Not that it mattered much, though. At least not when there was something _so much_ more important. Like getting a haircut and ironing my suit. My suit!

I needed to get one of those.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**Rachel**

"Marco must have a crush on another girl, the way he didn't even bother to react when I said 'Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go,'" I remarked to Cassie as we were walking down the sidewalk. "Either that, or all his ramblings finally made _himself_ deaf, instead of the person he was talking to."

"Mm-hmm," Cassie said with a "let's change the subject to something other than one of your feuds" tones in her voice. She's very noticeable in those kinds of things, but the shy innocence she has can excuse anything.

"Okay, Cassie, so what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"Well, look at that old car in the street. You can practically see smoke coming out of its exhaust. That's the problem with people; they're too cheap to care about the environment. Why do we kill things that help us? Like how we're killing most of the Earth, although we say we care about preserving it."

Well, that's Cassie for you. She doesn't talk about boys, or gossip, or fashion, like most normal girls. No, she talks about dirt, animals, and the big hole in the ozone layer. If she ever got interested in magazines, she'd be interested in names like "The Importance of Animal Feces on the Environment," and "A Thousand Things To Do With Trees and Not Kill Them." She's the tree-hugger in our group. Cassie the tree-hugger.

Cassie the poorly dressed tree-hugger. "When will you let me buy you some real clothes, and not these blue bedsheets you call jeans? They're not even a good shade of blue," I said in a friendly, sort of annoyed way. She smiled her "I'll take that as a joke" smile she usually does when I offer my fashion sense to her.

We walked together a little longer until we had to go separate ways.

The next day, the six of us had a meeting at Cassie's barn. That was a little bothersome, as the animals were pretty loud.

You see, Cassie's family rescues hurt animals in or near the city and takes care of them until they can be returned to the wild. The reason we – the Animorphs – meet here is that it's a private place where we can discuss things and no one can hear or see us. Not that we can hear everything we say all the time, because of all the animals.

"Okay, so here's the problem… Something wrong, Marco?" Jake asked, seeing Marco impatiently pacing the floor.

Jake's kind of our leader. That's why he usually starts the meetings. No one ever elected him or says much about it, but he does so well at leading us and making the most mature decisions that he naturally worked his way up there.

"Yeah, something's wrong," Marco said flatly. "I got a date with the prettiest girl in school and I don't want to stand her up."

_"Stand her up?" Why would you not want her to stand up?_ asked Ax, clueless to most human expressions.

Ax is the only Andalite in our group. By Andalite standards, he's a teenager like us, but he knows a _lot_ more than us about basically everything.

Except, of course, anything involving humans. Cassie got him an almanac once, but that only ended up in his learning "101 Useless Facts for Every Country."

In case you don't know what an Andalite is, they look roughly like a cross between a blue deer, a human, and a giant scorpion. Their lower body looks like a deer covered in blue fur. Their upper body is shaped like a human's, covered in thinner blue fur and with noticeably weak arms. Their head has no mouth on it and four eyes. Two of them are in the normal spot, and the other two are stalk eyes on top of their head that can turn 360 degrees and make it quite hard to surprise them. And if that's not enough to scare you, they also have what looks like a giant scorpion tail. That tail is their greatest weapon – besides super-advanced technology, that is. They can slash that tail so fast that you would barely have time to blink before two of your four limbs were already falling to the ground – and the other two would be falling before the first two hit the ground.

Good thing he's on our side.

_Actually, Ax, it's just an expression. "Standing someone up" means not showing up for an arranged meeting,_ Tobias explained in thought-speak from atop his perch in the rafters.

Thought-speak is like talking to someone telepathically. It comes from the alien device that gave us the morphing power. It can only be used when you're in a morph, or if you're an Andalite. Thought-speak is their natural language.

_Ah, yes, those are still quite confusing to me,_ Ax remarked.

"Anyway…" Jake continued, and then waited patiently for the rest of us to stop talking. He's pretty good at that.

"I got a phone call from Erek this morning. He told me that the Yeerks have started driving all the animals out of the eastern part of the forest."

"What? That's awful! We have to do something to save all those poor animals!" Cassie's eyes were showing an expression of shock and pure disgust.

"What? You're kidding, right? Are you actually saying that you're wasting my time and possibly endangering my relationship with the perfect girl over a bunch of animals that could probably just leave anyway?" Marco asked with pure annoyance in his face and voice.

Jake tried to continue. "If you'd have let me finish, I would explain why this is important: the Yeerks are clearing a large portion of the forest by either killing or scaring off all the animals, but they're leaving the trees there. This means that they must be planning something big in the area and something important enough to go out of their way to get the authorities to let them."

"That's horrible! Where do they expect all of the animals to go if not in the forest?" Cassie cried, still angered by the Yeerks bothering the animals rather than focusing on the plan they might have instead.

"That's horrible! Where do you expect all the Marcos to go if not on their date?" Marco said, mocking Cassie.

"Look, there are more important things here than individual animals and some girl," Jake said. "The entire planet could be in even more trouble right now. Now, we still need more information before we can go bursting in there and destroy everything–"

"Awww…" I said, a little disappointed that the attack would have to wait.

Jake gave us a look because we kept interrupting him. "Now, look. We may have Erek on our side to tell us what the Yeerks are doing, but he can't tell us everything, because he doesn't have access to all the information."

Erek is a member of a species of androids named the Chee. They were made by the most technologically advanced species in the known universe, so Erek is just about invincible to anyone who isn't a Chee. However, the one problem is that the Chee are programmed to be completely unable to hurt any living things.

The Chee were created by the Pemalites, a species so advanced that they had actually forgotten all about war and left it behind them. The fun-loving, pacifist Pemalites were eventually completely wiped out by the Howlers, and the Chee are all that remains of their vast knowledge.

So, although Erek can't fight, he is able to infiltrate the Yeerks' society through his hologram technology and pose as a Controller to obtain important information for us.

_Oh, by the way, Marco, did you know your new "girlfriend" brings fake tails to school?_ Tobias asked.

"Afraid she's gonna go rabid and eat you, Tobias?" Marco asked.

_Nope,_ Tobias replied.

"Look, we can talk about Marco's 'girlfriend' and her fake tail later," I interrupted. "Right now, we've got more important things to deal with."

_I suggest that some of us go over to the area that the Yeerks are operating in to examine what they are doing,_ Ax said.

"Good idea," Jake said. "Okay, I think three of us should go. Any volunteers?"

"I'll go," I said.

"What a surprise, Xena's raring to go," Marco said, smirking at me.

I glared at him. See, that's a nickname Marco has for me. Xena: Warrior Princess. Personally, I don't see it. Well, actually, I _do_ see it, but that doesn't make it any better.

Cassie glared at Marco. "I'm in. The Yeerks are destroying the forest. There's no way I'm sitting this one out."

Jake nodded and looked around. "Okay, so we need one more volunteer. Any takers?"

"Well, there's no way I'm going, I've got a date in half an hour," Marco said, as blunt as he could be.

"Seeing as no one else is volunteering, I guess we'll draw straws," Jake offered. He picked up three pieces of hay and shortened one of them.

Tobias pecked up one of the straws in his beak. _Short,_ he announced. Jake let the other two straws fall.

"Rachel, Cassie and Tobias," he said. "Guess you're free for your date after all, Marco."

"YES!" Marco yelled. Then he paused. "I mean… gee, thanks."

"We'll go after dinner," I said. "That work with you, Cassie?"

She nodded. "Not a problem. Let's meet up here."

_I'll be there,_ Tobias said, looking at me.

Jake nodded. "All right, we'll meet up back here tomorrow morning to hear what you three find. Good luck. And, Rachel?"

"What?" I asked, my voice as innocent as I could make it.

Jake gave me a sarcastic grin. "No charging in and starting a bunch of chaos unless it's absolutely, and I mean _absolutely_, necessary. Got it?"

I grinned. "No problem, cousin. No problem at all."

Behind me, Marco muttered something that sounded like "Yeah, right."


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

**Marco**

Well, I got dropped off at Chow 'N Noodles at 1:45 in the afternoon. Not that I wanted to get there early, but I wasn't taking any chances on getting there after her.

I sat on the bench in front of the restaurant and waited for Ms. Perfect to arrive.

After a while, I saw a young, red-haired 16-year-old come walking up the sidewalk. She was still wearing that non-labeled white baseball cap. I guess she didn't want to get dressed up for the occasion. Maybe I didn't have to buy this itchy black and white suit, then. I mean, seriously, was that thing made out of dead fleas or something? Maybe live fleas, the way it felt.

I looked at my watch. 2:00 exactly. She must really care about being on time.

"Hi, Marco," she said to me in a soft whisper.

"Hi," I responded.

We walked into the restaurant and they were able to seat us within minutes. I looked at the menu and picked out the chicken soup. Then the waiter came around and asked for our orders.

After I finished my short order, Susan took her turn.

"I'll have the grilled chicken, two beef patties, three orders of the kung pao chicken, a steak, the twenty-piece chicken nuggets, the tuna sandwich – you can leave out the buns – ten shrimp, and the chicken soup without the vegetables. I'd like it all cooked rare and three glasses of water on the side."

The waiter stared in disbelief for a moment. "Excellent. We also have a beautiful kitchen sink in the other room, if you'd like to spend a little more," he said as though it were a joke.

"Look, if the lady says she wants a full plate, give her one," I said, a little uncomfortable about the money I would soon be owing my dad.

"Of course. Anything for our new customer of the week," the waiter said, pointing to a plaque on the wall labeled Best Paying Customer of the Week.

I had a bad feeling about telling my dad where all the money went. I mean, how am I to explain that my girlfriend thought she could eat literally every meat product on the menu? How was I going to explain it: "Hey, Dad. You know that credit card you gave me with 500 'extra' dollars on it? Well, I'll need another one or I'll have to wash the dishes for the next two millennia."

While I was sipping my soup, I took a glance over at Susan. _Done?_ How did she finish all of that before I finished my soup?

"Susan, are you done already?" I asked.

"I'm done with the food, but I'm still thirsty," she replied.

Susan leaned over a glass of water and began to lick it up. I stared at her and she stopped.

"Um… on second thought, I'm not that thirsty," Susan said, sounding a little uncomfortable. "Let's go."

"I need the bill first," I reminded her.

"Bill? What's that?" she asked very innocently.

"I have to give something to the restaurant in return for the food," I replied hesitantly.

"Oh… right… sorry."

That was when I noticed she apparently had pink contacts in now. How many eye colors does one person really need, anyway? Wasn't green enough?

"Okay, I'll wait outside," she said.

Wow. In what country do they get free food in restaurants? Not to mention drinking water like a dog?

After I got the bill and was assured I wouldn't survive until tomorrow once my dad found out, I met Susan outside.

"That was nice, Marco. Maybe we could do it again soon," Susan said.

_Not with another bill like that, we can't,_ I thought. "How about a picnic, instead?" I suggested.

"Sure," she said, smiling at me. I noticed that her eyes had shifted into green again. Interesting.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

**Tobias**

The others had said we'd meet after dinner. Well, I'd just finished eating a mouse, so I guessed that counted.

I flew over to our arranged meeting place at the edge of the forest and landed on a branch. Rachel and Cassie were waiting there. I sat on the branch and watched the others morph into birds.

See, we usually need to morph into some kind of animal to complete the mission. For this mission, birds would probably be the most useful. I, of course, am already a bird, so I didn't need to morph.

I looked down and saw feather patterns beginning to appear on Rachel's skin. Then the patterns seemed to peel right off her skin and become feathers. She began shrinking and her feet became the sharp, ripping talons of a bird of prey. She was becoming an eagle.

Now, you might think that morphing happens in some kind of order, so it doesn't look so bad. Wrong.

Morphing is, for the most part, disgusting to watch. The only one of us who can make morphing look good most of the time is Cassie.

First she created her feathers, covering her body. Then she transformed her arms into wings, although the rest of her body was still human. Her feet became talons, and she shrank until she was about a foot tall.

She changed her face last, transforming her mouth and nose into a beak.

_Okay, guys, let's get going,_ I said, and jumped off the branch. Rachel and Cassie took off and followed me.

We stayed far enough away from each other that no one on the ground who saw us would be able to figure out that we were all flying together. That would not be good for secrecy.

After a few minutes of flying over the forest, we saw lights and heard machinery working up ahead, so we knew we were close.

I flew ahead and soared over the scene, trying to get a look at what was going on. I saw lots of human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir down below, along with a few Taxxons.

And here was the odd part. Down below, near one of the buildings, I saw lots of large metal cages. They looked a lot like the cages at the Yeerk pool which are used to hold humans and Hork-Bajir who are free while their Yeerks feed in the pool.

Except that these cages were holding wolves.

Every cage that I saw that was occupied had a wolf in it, and there were many more cages that weren't occupied.

I saw that the Yeerks were removing some of the wolves from the cages, apparently inspecting them, especially around the mouth, ears and paws, and then loading them onto trucks that would drive them about a mile into the forest and then release them, allowing them to run off into the woods.

Rachel and Cassie flew up and began circling above the Yeerk camp nearby.

_Maybe they're looking for us,_ Cassie suggested. _They could be capturing all of the wolves, holding them for more than two hours to see if they're Andalites in a morph, then releasing them if they aren't._

_Not a bad suggestion,_ I said. _Maybe we should get a closer look._

_Why don't we morph something the Yeerks won't notice?_ Rachel suggested. _Hork-Bajir, maybe?_

_Good idea,_ I said. _We should probably go one at a time._

_Why doesn't one of us stay up here and keep watch?_ Cassie asked.

_Okay, I'll cover that,_ I said. _You two should probably go one at a time. That'll reduce the chances of anyone seeing you._

_I'll go first,_ Rachel said. She folded her wings and dove towards the Yeerk camp. She had to get down fast, to reduce the chances of being spotted by some Controller looking up.

At the last second, Rachel flared her wings, pulled up, and landed behind a clump of bushes. Once she was sure no one had seen her, she began to demorph.

This was the tricky part. Once Rachel and Cassie were in Hork-Bajir morph, they'd be able to blend in. But as a human, they were in the most danger.

After she finished demorphing, Rachel started to morph Hork-Bajir. She shot up until she was over seven feet tall. Her feet became the taloned feet of a Hork-Bajir, and blades sprouted from her arms, legs, and head. A spiked tail came last.

After Rachel was fully morphed, Cassie also landed, demorphed, and remorphed to Hork-Bajir. The two of them then set off in the general direction of the cages. I followed overhead, giving them directions in private thought-speak.

_Okay, you're getting close. The cages are on the other side of that building there._

They walked casually around the building as if they were on patrol. They were right next to the cages. As I watched, they started chatting with two Hork-Bajir and a human-Controller guarding the cages. Amazingly, our plan, shaky as it was, was working.

And then everything started falling apart.

Because, with Cassie and Rachel just a few feet from the cages, I heard a roar of engines and turned to see a Bug fighter right as it blew past me.

At the same time, I heard Rachel's voice in my head. _Tobias, you are not going to believe this. I think we just found out why the Yeerks are–_

Then everything went wrong.

I guess the Hork-Bajir or Taxxon on board that Bug fighter had just noticed that I was here.

TSEEEWWW!

The Bug fighter fired at me. I weighed my options in a split second. If I tried to go up or turn in any direction, the Dracon beam would hit me.

So I folded my wings and plunged.

The Dracon beam seared past overhead, so close that I felt it singe the feathers on the top of my head.

And then, down below, the fighting started.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

**Rachel**

We'd just gotten to where the cages of wolves were sitting. A human-Controller and two Hork-Bajir were guarding them, and looked up as I walked over to them.

"Yes?" the human-Controller, a middle-aged blond man, said in a snappish voice. "What do you want?"

"Sorry," I said. "Newly arrived from pool. Visser requested we be debriefed." I gestured to Cassie, who was standing behind me. I was trying to sound like a typical Hork-Bajir with a limited vocabulary, which wasn't easy.

The human-Controller sighed. "Fine, then, but listen carefully, because I'm not repeating this. We're rounding up all of the wolves in this forest looking for more of those Hunters, like the one we've got at the pool."

_Hunters?_ I asked Cassie in private thought-speak.

_No idea,_ she replied.

"You're looking for unusual appearances on the wolves," the human-Controller said. "There are tendrils retracted into the gum line – watch out for those, because they're electric – their eyes change colors, their ears can rotate, and they'll have retractable claws in each of their toes. But they'll be trying to hide those things, so you'll need to be thorough."

"Trying to hide?" I asked.

"Yes. These creatures are smart. About as intelligent as humans, Andalites, or Yeerks, we think. And they can take on human forms when they need to, except for ears and a tail. It makes them very hard to find."

_You've got to be kidding me,_ I said to Cassie. I looked up as I heard a roar of engines and saw a Bug fighter gliding past overhead. _Tobias, you are not going to believe this. I think I know why the Yeerks are–_

TSEEEWWW!

The Bug fighter fired. The glowing Dracon beam sliced through the darkness. I saw a bird silhouetted against the blast.

_Tobias!_

Unfortunately, I hadn't realized that I hadn't been using private thought-speak when I'd yelled his name. The human-Controller froze as he heard my thought-speak yell. Then he drew his Dracon beam and started backing away.

"Andalites!" he spat, fury covering his face. "Get them!"

The two Hork-Bajir drew their Dracon beams. I didn't hesitate. I surged forward and slashed with a wrist blade, catching one of the Hork-Bajir right beneath the chin.

Now he didn't have a chin.

I caught the Dracon beam neatly as he collapsed. I pointed it at the other Hork-Bajir and squeezed the trigger.

Tseew!

The Hork-Bajir sizzled and disappeared. The human-Controller took off, running.

"Get reinforcements over here! Andalites!" he yelled.

Uh-oh.

_Tobias, what's the nearest way out?_ Cassie called.

_Take a right and hope you can outrun those Controllers trying to cut you off,_ Tobias said, sounding a little stressed.

_Okay, now get out of there!_ I yelled.

_No problem. I've really had enough of this Bug fighter. The gunners' aim must be good. They nearly hit me._

We took off, running as fast as our legs could go.

Tseew!

I saw a flash of light fly right in front of me, but it missed by a foot. A human-Controller jumped out in front of me with a Dracon beam. Idiot.

I lashed out and cut his arm off with a slash of my wrist blade before he could pull the trigger.

That should teach the Yeerks to mess with me. I kept running.

The forest! Just a few more yards and I'd be out!

_AAAHHH!_

_Cassie!_ I yelled. Cassie was standing near the wolf cages, surrounded by half a dozen Hork-Bajir.

I charged, swung at the Hork-Bajir in front of Cassie and cut its back open with one slash.

_Get ready to run!_ Cassie shouted. She turned and swung her wrist blade at a panel on some kind of platform. There was a metallic clang, a burst of sparks–

And every one of the wolves' cages sprang open.

The wolves burst out of the cages almost as one and broke for the trees, some running, others attacking human-Controllers or Hork-Bajir.

The Yeerk camp exploded into absolute chaos. Wolves, human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir were running everywhere.

I took down one of Cassie's attackers with a quick slash to the throat and yelled, _COME ON!_ Cassie nodded and took off after me.

We made it out of the camp safely. The Bug fighter was still firing occasionally, but Tobias had made it into the trees by then.

We met up with Tobias outside of the camp. We demorphed and morphed to owls, and the three of us took off while the Yeerks were still chasing the wolves through the woods.

_So, what did you guys find out?_ Tobias asked.

_Well,_ I said, _it looks like the Yeerks are looking for some kind of freaky-looking creatures. They look a lot like wolves, which is why the Yeerks are capturing all of the wolves in the forest. They're not actually looking for us at all._

_Interesting,_ Tobias said. _We'll tell the others about this tomorrow._

_Right,_ I said. _See you guys at the barn tomorrow._

Tobias veered off, heading for the woods, and Cassie headed towards her house. I kept going towards my house, strangely dissatisfied. I mean, we'd disrupted the Yeerks' camp, freed all the wolves they'd had captive, and gotten information about what they were really after.

So why did it feel like I was missing something?


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

**Ax**

We all gathered in Cassie's barn on Sunday afternoon. I was in my human morph, because I could not be in Andalite form when Cassie's parents might arrive at any moment.

Prince Jake was looking at Rachel, Cassie and Tobias. "Okay, so how'd it go?"

_Excellent,_ Tobias said. _We found out why the Yeerks are tearing up the forest._

"Okay, and that would be…?" Marco asked from where he was sitting on a bale of hay.

Rachel stepped forward. "The Yeerks are tearing up the forest so they can capture all of the wolves."

"Wolves?" Marco asked, his tone incredulous. "Why would the Yeerks care about wolves?"

"Because they're looking for some kind of freaky creatures that they think are in the forest," Cassie said. "Apparently, they look like wolves, but they have electric tendrils in their mouths, their ears can rotate, and they have retractable claws in their toes."

"That's it?" Marco asked sarcastically.

"Actually, there was one more thing," Rachel said. "Their eyes can change colors."

Marco performed what I believe humans call a "double take" at that. "Their eyes… change colors?"

"And I think they can… change into humans or something like that," Cassie said. "Except for…"

"Ears and a tail," Rachel finished.

Marco's lower jaw dropped about six inches. "You're serious?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. "Apparently, the Yeerks know all of this because they have one of these things at the Yeerk pool. They call them Hunters."

Marco was staring at Rachel. "I don't believe this."

_Well, it's real,_ Tobias reported from the rafters.

"Oh, by the way, Marco," Prince Jake said. "We've been keeping tabs on your 'girlfriend' for you." He indicated me with one hand and himself with the other. "You know, just to make sure she isn't a Controller."

"You've been spying on Susan?" Marco asked. When we didn't answer, he glared at Prince Jake. "Well? What'd you find out?"

"I seriously doubt that your girlfriend is a Controller, Marco," I said. "We have been watching her since Friday, and she had never once been near a Yeerk pool entrance."

"On the other hand," Prince Jake said, "apart from school, she hasn't gone anywhere else, either."

"What do you mean?" Marco asked.

"At night on Friday and yesterday, she walked into the woods, rather than into any house," I informed him. "We followed her for some distance, but lost track of her both times."

"Okay, we should probably go," Prince Jake said.

"As you wish, Prince Jake," I said.

"Ax? You really, really don't have to call me prince."

"Yes, Prince Jake."


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

**Marco**

I walked out of the barn and up the street. I think some of my friends tried calling to me, but I didn't respond and they eventually gave up.

I was deep in thought about how my girlfriend – who is the prettiest and most dreamy girl I've ever seen, not to mention gone on a date with – might have been born in the black lagoon for all I know.

I mean, I should have suspected something when she ordered from the Two-Ton Carnivore section of the menu.

Who would have ordered all that meat cooked rare, with a side of three glasses of water they try to lick up like a dog? She might have taken the waiter up on his kitchen sink if I hadn't butted in.

After a while of walking, I returned to focusing on my surroundings and found myself next to the edge of the forest with the city about an hour's walk behind me.

By then my brain was worn out from all of the thinking and I needed to sit down and rest. I looked to my right and saw a fallen log under an overhang of rocks. I walked over to it and sat down. Then I laid down.

It was more uncomfortable than standing up.

I lowered myself onto the flat ground next to it, without taking much notice of what was on it.

Soft. Soft? It felt like a woolen blanket.

I opened my eyes. It was a woolen blanket! Now, why would someone dump a perfectly good woolen blanket out here in the forest?

"Marco?"

Uh-oh. I knew that voice quite well. It was the last person I wanted to see at the moment.

"Oh, hi, Susan," I said in a voice that I could tell expressed my worn-out mind very well.

"What are you doing in the forest?" she asked me.

"What are you doing in the forest?" I replied.

"I was just out for a… walk," she asked me.

"Me, too," I said.

I got up and sat on the log. She joined me a few seconds later.

"Look, Susan, there's something I have to ask you…"

"Yes?" she asked, beautiful innocence in her voice.

"Does the word… Hunter… mean anything to you?" I asked with a dying hope that it didn't.

"You… know?" she asked, her eyes now blue.

"Yeah," I said.

"Oh."

We stared at each other for a moment.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Well, it's not the kind of thing to discuss on a first date," she replied.

"Well, I suppose you can't just say, 'Hi, honey, I'm really a wolf with electric tentacles and I have fur whenever I'm not in public. What's for dinner?'"

"Heh, heh. That's why I like you, Marco. You have humor even when it doesn't fit," she complimented.

There was a long pause.

"Well, we should be going now," I said.

"Yeah, I suppose…" she agreed.

I started to walk away. Then I stopped and turned around.

"You still good for that picnic?" I asked.

Her eyes lit up green.

"When and where?" she asked me.

"How about here this Saturday?" I asked.

"Sure."

I walked back to the road that led home.

_Why did I do that? Marco, you idiot, you just found out she's a wolfwoman and you still asked her out on a date? She could eat you on that picnic! But she's so beautiful and innocent… SHE COULD EAT YOU ON THAT PICNIC! Well, I guess I'll just have to find out, then. AM I NOT HEARING MYSELF? Ah, whatever. There's no point in me yelling at myself. Oh, look, I'm back in the city._

It was midnight by the time I got back, and my dad would definitely be looking for me.

I walked in the door. Dad was just getting ready to call all of the neighbors he could find in the phone book. You could tell, because he had the phone book open on the dining room table with a paper and pencil next to it.

"And where have you been?" he asked me in a loud, deep voice.

"With… Susan," I replied.

"…Oh."

He calmed down noticeably.

"Where?" he asked.

"A little ways outside the city," I said.

"What were you doing so far from home?"

"Just talking," I said, feeling kind of stupid.

"Must have been a good conversation," he said.

"You could say that, yeah," I agreed.


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

**Susan Taronyutsyip**

I opened my eyes and yawned. _Morning already?_

I got up from the cushion laid out on the wooden floor and went over to the "dressing room," as I call it.

I shifted back into my human form and got dressed.

My name is Susan Taronyutsyip. I am a Hunter. Actually, I'm half human. My mother was human, but my dad isn't. He is a Hunter. He can turn into a human form, like all full-blooded Hunters, but he still looks like that "Wolfman" I saw in a human movie once.

Because I'm half human, I can erase every Hunter trait except my ears and tail when I go into human form. Being half human is also why my dad makes me attend human schools.

My mom died when I was three years old, so I guess my dad wants me to learn about the heritage I got from her side.

After I finished dressing, I walked into the "living room" as my dad says humans call it.

I saw that Dad had placed a freshly killed rabbit on the table and then left, probably to socialize with the only other male Hunter in our area. I once heard that this was quite common among human males as well, only they prefer to drink poisons and watch colorful boxes while doing it.

Sometimes I feel better about being a female half human. It's hard to understand male humans. Even Marco, the only one I actually like.

I finished breakfast and wiped the red spots on what the humans call "towels" that Dad found somewhere. After that, I left the little wooden cabin in the middle of the forest and walked to where Marco and I were supposed to have some kind of food gathering he called a "picnic" at 2:00 P.M.

I didn't have much else to do, so I decided to wait there for five more hours until the "picnic" was scheduled to begin.

I could tell it had been four hours, fifty-three minutes, and ten seconds because my dad taught me how to tell time by the amount of energy in the outside air. He also taught me to tell direction by the magnetic pull on my body.

At 1:50 P.M. I saw Marco walking up to me. He had a woven box made of some kind of plant that I could smell had many types of foods in it.

Marco opened it up and put a colorful cloth of some sort between us.

"So, how have you been for the rest of the week?" he asked me.

"You mean outside of school where you couldn't see me?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he said.

"Fine. There was a sudden boost in rabbit population, but it's not as good as human food."

He glared at me for a moment, then looked back at what he was doing as though he'd suddenly remembered something.

"Did you have a good hunt?" I asked. It seemed like a good topic, but then I realized that only some humans enjoy hunting, and I didn't think Marco was one of them.

"I actually didn't hunt," he said.

"Where did you get your food, then? You know, it's very impolite to consistently ask for another's prize just because you can't get your own," I said.

"Well, humans are very good at getting food, so they like to trade most of it for something they want more," he replied.

"Like that shiny card you used at the restaurant?" I asked.

"Exactly," he said.

That sounded like a bad trade to me. I mean, I wouldn't give away all that food for some little blue square. Humans must be good hunters to have such cheap food.

Marco placed food on the cloth and then some strange, apparently heavily polluted water in very clean cups. The brownish water was so polluted, it was sizzling like acid and seemed to be creating its own air in the form of bubbles at the bottom.

"Marco, if you want water, there's a stream in the distance to your right," I offered.

"What? Oh. Hah, no, this isn't dirty water. It's a very sweet drink humans like," he said. He held it up to me. I held it up and licked some out.

"Wow! This must be a rare human delicacy," I said.

"Delicacy? This is what the poor people drink," he said.

"Poor?" I asked cluelessly.

"Humans are sometimes ranked by how much they can trade. Poor is the second lowest rank," he explained.

We finished the picnic, and Marco even showed me that some plants are edible. I was surprised. I hadn't known that plants could be eaten by anything other than prey. Maybe the human in me liked the plants, because I know other Hunters are sickened by their taste.

"I've gotta get going," Marco said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I just remembered that I have to attend a meeting with the others today," he explained. "See, we have a secret too. You're not the only one who's special."

"You mean the whole 'Animorphs' thing?" I asked.

"SHHHHH!" he almost yelled, and then reduced his voice to a whisper. "_How do you know about that?_" he hissed.

"I heard you talking about your recon mission last week," I answered.

"What? How? Where were you?" he said, starting to become hysterical.

"I was about half a mile from you, so you didn't notice. I wasn't spying, I just heard your voice and decided to listen a little harder," I said, trying to calm him down.

"Well, don't tell anyone!" he blurted out.

"I won't. But can I come along with you? I think I can help with your problem," I offered.

"No, I think the others will notice a 16-year-old girl with white-furred ears and a white-furred tail," he said.

"Well, that's why I wear a hat, and the tail fits nicely into these 'jeans,' as you humans call them."

"No," he said sternly.

"Please?" I begged.

"No," he continued.

"How about if I tell you my ideas so you can propose them, while I listen from afar?" I pleaded.

"Well… I suppose so. But keep far enough away that the bird can't hear or see you," he said.

"Or, better yet, I can pose as you to express my ideas," I offered.

"I think they'll notice a girl trying to pose as me. Besides, you just don't have the Marco charm to woo them into doing anything you want," he said. He might have been joking, but, then again, he is quite charming.

"Well, I can do something similar to what you can. I can 'morph,' as you call it, into other creatures, but without the instincts they get."

"Say what?" Marco said in a dumbfounded voice.

"Andalites aren't the only ones to invent that technology. And besides, I think the one Hunters created is better, because it only takes a few seconds to morph, and your mind doesn't get clouded with all those instincts," I explained.

"Wait… Hunters have technology?" he asked with a more dumbfounded voice than before.

"We have scientific knowledge. We rarely turn that into technology."

"Well… I guess I would like to miss just one meeting… and you do know how to solve our problem. You do have a good idea, right?" he asked just to make sure.

"Of course. Hunters are the smartest species on Earth – no offense to humans, though. I am actually half human," I said.

"Fine. But don't mess this up. They'd kill me if they found out what you know and think I told you."

"WHAT?" I screamed in shock.

"Relax! It's just an exaggeration…" he explained.

"Oh… So I can do it?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure," he said.

"YES! I get to be you!" I yelled in excitement.

"Why do your eyes keep changing colors?" Marco asked me.

"They change colors to fit my current emotion," I said.

Marco offered his hand and I touched it to start absorbing his DNA.

Marco relaxed and started to lean forward a little.

You see, when you absorb a creature's DNA, it goes into a state of relaxation, or a trance, that wears off as soon as you finish acquiring it.

I let go, and Marco went back to his normal expression. Which wasn't actually very different from his relaxed face, as they were both quite joyful and giddy.

I then began to 'morph' into Marco.

There wasn't much to explain, since there were very few changes to make and the morph only lasted about ten seconds before I was done.

When I was finished morphing, Marco stared at me for a moment.

"Wait, why do you still have a tail?" he asked me.

"I don't know," I responded. "I'm not sure I can ever get rid of it."

"Well, then, take my belt so it doesn't slip out," Marco said.

"All right," I agreed.

He walked me close enough to the barn that belonged to his friend Cassie so that I could walk the rest of the way.

"Now, above all, remember; Your name is Marco, not Susan. Get it? Marco," he reminded me. "Now, I've gotta go see if anyone beat my high score in the arcade before I head home. Bye, 'Marco,' he said, and grinned.

Marco walked away, so now it was just me; Marco.


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

**Jake**

We were all at the barn to discuss what we should do about the situation in the woods. Cassie and Rachel had freed all of the wolves that the Yeerks were holding captive, but we hadn't destroyed their operation, and clearly the Yeerks would still be looking for those Hunter things.

Marco got there last. The thing I immediately noticed was that he was wearing a white baseball cap in addition to his normal clothes. His jacket was zipped shut so we couldn't see his T-shirt underneath.

"Hi," he said.

"Okay, now that everyone's here, we can start," I said.

_All right. Apparently, the Yeerks are still looking for these Hunter things in the woods,_ Tobias said from the rafters. _Rachel and Cassie managed to free all of the wolves they had captive, but the Yeerks are obviously still looking._

"Oh, by the way, that human-Controller we talked to last night said the Yeerks already have one of those Hunter things at the Yeerk pool," Rachel said.

"What?" Marco asked, shock in his voice.

Rachel looked over at him. "Yeah, that's why the Yeerks know what the Hunters look like and what to look for."

As Marco stared at Rachel, shock still visible on his face, I noticed that his eyes seemed… different. Honestly, they seemed kind of violet-colored. Very different from his normal eye color.

_Marco? You okay?_ Tobias asked. _Your eyes look kind of funny._

Marco looked up at Tobias. For a moment, there was a brief expression of surprise on his face when he saw Tobias, but then his face calmed and he said, "No, no, I'm fine. My eyes must just be a bit irritated. They do itch a little."

_All right,_ Tobias said. _Never mind._ His voice sounded somewhat suspicious, though.

Then he spoke in private thought-speak to me. _His eyes are purple, Jake. I don't know how, or why, but they're purple._

I looked casually at Marco. Yes, his eyes were purple. I wouldn't have noticed if Tobias hadn't pointed it out, but they were.

Then, as I watched, they changed. The color started changing, turning from purple to another color.

It took a few seconds before I realized that his eyes were turning orange.

I looked up at Tobias. His eyes locked on mine as his voice resounded inside my head. _Jake, his eyes are changing colors. His eyes are CHANGING COLORS._

That was when it hit me like a bucket of ice water in the face.

That wasn't Marco.

A white baseball cap… since when did Marco wear something like that?

Answer: he didn't.

A different look. Eyes changing colors. Not acting like Marco.

There was only one thing this could be.

I looked over at Ax. His main eyes were focused on me, but one stalk eye was focused on Tobias and the other on Marco. Or at least the thing that _looked_ like Marco.

I knew that he had heard every word Tobias had said. So I didn't need to tell him what to do next.

I turned to the Marco-thing and stepped forward towards it, looking straight into its disturbing, orange eyes.

"I didn't know you had orange eyes, Marco," I said.

The Marco-thing's head snapped up as if yanked by a chain. Its eyes widened, and changed colors again, this time turning violet.

"Ax," I said, nodding.

FWAPP! Like lightning, Ax whipped his tail forward, faster than the eye could see. He stopped and held it pressed against the Marco-thing's throat.

"Jake, what are you doing?" Cassie cried.

"Are you NUTS?" Rachel demanded.

_It's not Marco!_ Tobias snapped. _Look at the eyes!_

As we watched, the Marco-thing's eyes changed color again. This time, they turned a strange, bright yellow and focused on the Andalite tail blade pressed against its throat. I was surprised that it didn't look scared. I mean, I would have been scared in its position.

I stepped forward and stared straight into the Marco-thing's face. "Okay, time for our first question. Who are you?"


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

**Susan**

"My name is Taronyutsyip," I said, knowing that the plan we'd made was already lost.

"…Taron…what?" Jake asked.

"Taronyutsyip. My human name is Susan," I explained.

"Susan? You're Marco's girlfriend?" Rachel yelled.

"Yes," I said.

_You mean you _were_ Marco's girlfriend. What did you do with him? _asked the bird.

"I think he said something about something called an 'arcane,'" I said.

"Arcade, you mean?" Cassie asked.

"Yes, that was it."

"Prove it," Jake said.

"Well, if you know where the 'arcade' is, you can go check for him yourself," I explained.

Jake nodded to the bird perched up in the rafters and it flew out the window. We waited for a few minutes, nobody saying anything. I was focused on the blade pressed against my throat to make a countering move if I needed to.

Exactly three minutes and fifteen seconds after he'd left, the bird flew back in through the window. Then Marco – the real Marco – walked into the barn.

He looked annoyed with me.

"I made it halfway to the arcade before Tobias showed up and told me you messed everything up," he said angrily.

"Wait, you _knew_ about this?" Jake asked.

Marco sighed. "Yes. But it wasn't my idea!" he blurted out. "She just kept begging until I let her."

The Andalite lowered his tail blade just enough for me to fit my hand between the blade and my throat. I extended the claws in my fingers, knocked the tail blade away in less than a fourth of a second, and jumped back five feet or so to prevent any retaliation.

"Whoa!" Rachel yelled.

The Andalite, Ax, tensed for a moment, but then appeared to relax. I guess they knew I was on their side now.

Jake stared at me for a moment and then got back to business. "Marco? Is your 'girlfriend' even human?"

"Uh… I'm not really sure. I think she's half human," Marco replied.

"My mother was human," I explained. "My father isn't."

_And just what is your father, then?_ Ax asked.

Marco and I looked at each other, and then I turned my gaze back to the others.

"Well, my father's a… Hunter," I said hesitantly.

"WHAT?" Rachel yelled in a shocked tone of voice. Then, oddly, a smile seemed to edge over her face.

"I knew it!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Knew what?" I asked.

"I always knew no human girl would agree to go out with Marco more than once. Guess I was right."

"Ha, ha, ha," Marco said dryly. "Now, if the peanut gallery does not have any more opinions to render, why don't we get back on subject?"

_Yes,_ Ax said. _First, how do you look like Marco?_

"Well," I said, "I have an ability similar to what you have. I can "morph," as you call it. Though it's different from how it works for you."

Ax stared at me as if I'd grown a second head. _What? How could another species have developed morphing capabilities? Come to think of it, how did your species evolve in the first place?_

I hesitated. Not because I didn't want to answer, but because the legend of how my people had evolved was forbidden to non-Hunters. But, I needed their help, so it couldn't hurt to be honest.

I decided to change back to my original form. I chose to leave Marco's jacket on while I was morphing, as he might be embarrassed if his friends were to see an image of himself wearing female clothes. Humans are very strict in the types of clothes that should be worn by different genders.

I began to change. My face, of course, was all they saw changing. My hair changed from Marco's short black hair to my long, red hair. My skin changed colors slightly, becoming my own pale, almost translucent skin.

The only change that made me look very different was that my ears sprouted out of my head. They didn't see that, however, because I still had the baseball cap on.

After I'd finished morphing, I removed Marco's jacket and handed it back to him. Rachel's eyes widened as she stared at my clothes. Shock filled her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Yeah," Rachel said. "I finally found someone else with Cassie's fashion sense. I didn't think that was possible."

Cassie glared at Rachel with an exasperated expression on her face.

_So… now what?_ the talking bird said from the rafters. I'd been mildly surprised to actually see someone who looked like prey talking, but I'd gotten over it.

"Now I can tell you about the history of my people."

I turned to the six Animorphs. The Andalite, Ax, still seemed wary of me. I didn't blame him, though. I'd be acting the same way if I was in his position.

"Thousands of years ago," I began, "before any of the great human civilizations had formed, our Ancestors arrived on this planet. They came in a great ship that had passed through space for many years, seeking a new home."

"By the time they arrived here, the Ancestors were dying. They only wanted to leave something of themselves."

"But we would not have come to be if it hadn't been for the Ancestors' companions, the Creators. The Creators were the partners and friends of the Ancestors, and had done everything in their power to save them. But nothing could save the last of the Ancestors from death."

"And so the Creators merged the minds of the Ancestors, all that remained of them, into one of the native species. The ancestors of our cousins, the wolves."

"Some wolves absorbed the happiness of the Ancestors, their constant joy at life, and their spiritual peace. But we, those who would become the Hunters, absorbed something different. We absorbed the Ancestors' intelligence. Their creativity, their technological skill, and their brilliance."

"And that is how the Hunters were born. We were never many to start with, and our numbers have not grown greatly. We eventually developed the morphing power, aided by some technology originally developed by the Ancients, and thus became able to transform into, and thus interbreed with, humans. That's how I was born."

Tobias focused on me with his intense hawk eyes. Susan, these… Ancestors… what were they really called? What was their real name?

I looked up at him, my eyes turning violet in surprise. "Well, it has been so long since the Ancestors arrived on this world that none of us remember their real name. That doesn't even survive in our most ancient legends."

I looked around and saw that every one of the Animorphs, including Ax, were staring at me. Ax and Tobias wore unreadable expressions, but the mouths of the four humans in the barn were hanging open in shock. Jake stepped forward and stared at me, momentarily unable to speak. He looked at Rachel, who nodded dumbly.

It was Tobias who said it.

_Pemalites._


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

**Cassie**

Susan appeared confused, and her eyes turned an odd teal shade. "I don't understand. What are Pemalites?"

_Pemalites,_ Ax said, _are a race of highly intelligent beings that became extinct thousands of years ago. The last Pemalites arrived on Earth thousands of years ago, and their essence, their souls, were merged with the minds of wolves, thus creating dogs._ He looked at her, calculating. _And, apparently, they may have created you, as well._

Susan's eyes turned dark purple and she emitted a single, strangled gasp. "What?" she gasped, staring wide-eyed at us.

I stepped forward and placed a hand on Jake's arm. "Jake, if this involves the Pemalites, then we need an expert. You know who that is."

He nodded. "Marco? Call Erek. Tell him to meet us at the barn right away. Tell him it's important."

Marco nodded and dialed a number, his face grimly set. I watched him as he dialed. I could only imagine what he was going through. First his girlfriend turned out to be another species, then it turns out she was actually part of a species that was created by the Pemalites thousands of years ago. It was a lot to take in.

Marco hung up the phone and turned to Jake.

"Okay, Erek's on his way. He'll be here soon."

About five minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

"And that would be Erek," Rachel said.

I walked over and opened the door. Erek was standing outside.

"Good to see you, Erek. Come in."

Erek followed me into the barn. He did a double take when he saw Susan sitting on a bale of hay next to Marco.

"Um…" he said. "Uh, Cassie, who is this, and why is she here? You didn't make another Animorph, did you?"

"No," I said. "Nothing like that. But… you need to see this."

I walked over to Susan. "Susan, this is Erek. Erek, this is Susan…" I struggled for a moment, trying to get her last name out.

"Taronyutsyip," Susan said softly.

Erek stared at her for a moment. "That's not a common name. I should know, I've never heard that name, and I've been here for-"

He cut himself off, not wanting to say any more in front of Susan.

I turned to Erek. "Erek, I think there's something about Susan you'll want to see."

Marco nodded to Susan. "Show him."

Susan straightened up, took a deep breath, and then lifted the baseball cap off her head, exposing the fact that, where normal human ears would be, she had a pair of white-furred, rotating wolf ears. Then, before any of us could say anything, she lifted the back of her jacket and pulled out the white-furred tail tucked up underneath, letting it stretch out several feet behind her.

Erek's jaw dropped. Now, that shouldn't be possible, since his "face" is really a hologram, but he did. He must have made his hologram mouth drop open.

"That's…" he stammered. "That's… impossible. They haven't existed for thousands of years."

_I disagree,_ Ax said calmly. _Susan is a Hunter. You created them, didn't you?_

Susan's eyes shifted back to teal as she stared at Erek. "What do you mean?" she asked Ax.

Ax looked at Erek. _Erek. Turn off your hologram._

Erek nodded. He closed his eyes, and then his hologram flickered off, revealing him as a humanoid, vaguely canine android.

Susan gasped and her eyes turned dark purple as she stared, frozen, at Erek.

"Creator!" she breathed.


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13**

**Jake**

"Yes, we created the Hunters," Erek told us. He had put his hologram back up and was sitting on a bale of hay, staring at Susan with fascination in his expression. Susan, on the other hand, was staring at Erek with an expression of awe on her face. Her eyes had turned silver after she had seen Erek in his true form.

"Long ago, when we first arrived on Earth, the last Pemalites were dying from the virus that they had been infected with by the Howlers, as you know," Erek said. We nodded in response.

"When we arrived on Earth, we Chee merged the essence of the Pemalites with wolves. Some wolves that went through this process absorbed the Pemalites' joy, their constant happiness and playful natures. But others absorbed another part of the Pemalites' souls. Their intelligence. Their technological brilliance. Their self-awareness. But not their natural joy in life."

Erek stared at Susan, amazement still on his face.

"We called these beings Hunters, because that was how they lived. They retained the natural instincts of wolves, the urges to hunt and kill, only now they had Pemalite intelligence in addition to that, as well as various physical alterations that had occurred as a result of the process. We, of course, being programmed against harming any living thing, could do nothing to harm the Hunters. So we taught them to respect other intelligent life, and to take pride in their lives. And then we set them free, to roam the forests of this new world, while we Chee continued on our own path."

Erek looked at Susan again. "We had thought that the Hunters had died out thousands of years ago. Clearly, we were wrong about that. But I would like some explanation as to why you look so human, Susan."

"I'm half human," she explained in a soft tone of voice. "My father is a Hunter, and my mother…" She paused for a moment. "She was human."

"Fascinating," Erek said. "But how's that possible? How could two completely different species interbreed?"

"Well, over time we made further genetic advances," Susan explained. "That included the development of a power similar to what Andalites possess. The power to morph, they call it."

Erek stared at her, incredulous. "Your kind… can morph?"

"Yes," she said. "We developed it by use of some of the Ancestors' technology."

"Of course," Erek said, almost to himself. "That makes perfect sense. Some Pemalite technology did disappear soon after the Hunters were created. Your ancestors must have taken it before leaving."

"I wouldn't know," Susan said. "All I know are the stories I was told as a child."

I stepped forward. "Look, we don't have time to worry about how your species was created right now. We've got a bigger problem. The Yeerks are combing the entire forest looking for more Hunters, and they've already got one at the Yeerk pool. Whatever they've got planned for the Hunters, it can't be good. The last thing we need right now is the Yeerks making an army of Hunter-Controllers."

"I suggest we get into this place, the Yeerk pool, you call it, and free the Hunter they're holding captive as soon as we can," Susan said, her eyes turning yellow again. "How hard can it be?"

I turned to her. "Clearly, Susan, you've never tried to get into the Yeerk pool, or you wouldn't be asking that question."

I turned to the others. "Regardless, she's right; we do need to get down there before the Yeerks can catch any more Hunters. So what do we have to deal with?" I started counting points on my fingers. "There's the Gleet BioFilter…"

_And hunter robots,_ Ax said, _both of which are programmed to destroy any animals other than those that they are programmed to recognize._

"And," I concluded, "we can't go down there as humans, because if we had to morph we'd show the Yeerks that we're humans, which would doom us and our families."

_Any other ideas?_ Tobias asked from his perch in the rafters. _No? Well, then, we're pretty much screwed._

"Well, we do need to get in there," Marco said.

Five pairs of eyes – well, no, seven, if you counted Erek and Ax's stalk eyes – stared at Marco in disbelief.

"What?" Marco defended. "If we don't get in there and shut down the Yeerks' project to capture the Hunters, they'll end up catching more of them and turning them into more shock troops, that will, no doubt about it, be used against us."

"You know, he's right," Rachel said. "The only reason Visser Three would care about capturing the Hunters is to use them to take us down."

"So… any ideas?" I asked. "We can't use any of the entrances the Yeerks built, and we can't use the bat cave entrance because of the hunter robots."

_Actually… maybe we can,_ Tobias said.

I turned to him. "What do you mean?"

_Well, the reason the hunter robots were able to take us down was because we were in bat morph, so we couldn't fight very well. But what if we were in morphs that could fight?_

"What morphs?" I asked. "Owls, maybe?"

"Not a bad idea," Cassie said. "Owls can see well in the dark, they're small enough to be able to fly inside the bat cave, and they can fight."

"I still say this is a bad idea," Marco said. "I mean, us as owls against hunter robots? Why don't we just write KILL ME NOW on our foreheads?"

"Personally, I agree," Erek said. "It's true that this Hunter needs to be freed, but charging in blindly is not the way to do it."

"Well, do you have a better idea?" Rachel asked.

Erek turned to her. "Not at the moment. But there has to be a better way to do this than purposely charging in as birds and attacking the hunter robots head-on."

"An excellent point," Marco said brightly.

Rachel's response was something along the lines of "Shut up, Marco."

"Relax, guys," I said. "We're not getting anything solved by arguing."

"Well, what do you think, oh fearless leader?" Marco asked, grinning at me.

I considered. Yes, Rachel and Cassie were right in that it would be easier for owls to get into the Yeerk pool and take on the hunter robots than bats.

But on the other hand, Marco and Erek did make a good point. The last time we'd tried to enter the Yeerk pool through the bat cave, we'd nearly gotten ourselves killed. And the odds wouldn't be that much better even if we did go in using tougher morphs.

But there had to be something else we could try…

"All right, let's all meet up back here tomorrow after school. That includes Erek and Susan. We're all part of this plan now."

I just hoped that, by tomorrow, we'd have a plan to follow.


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14**

**Tobias**

We met up back at Cassie's barn on Monday afternoon. Susan arrived first, wearing her baseball cap to cover her ears. Once she was in the barn, she took the cap off and sat down on a hay bale. She didn't seem to notice me sitting up there on the windowsill until I flapped my wings and jumped to the rafter I usually sit on during meetings. Her head snapped up and she stared at me for a moment, her eyes briefly turning teal before she recognized me.

"Oh," she said softly. "It's Tobias, right?"

_Yeah,_ I confirmed.

"Sorry," she said. "It's just strange to see something that looks like it should be prey talking to me."

_Well, it's surprising for me to see a girl with a tail and ears,_ I replied.

She chuckled at my response. "Yeah, that's why I have to hide the tail and ears in public. It's nice to be able to be myself with someone other than my father."

_I can sympathize,_ I said. _I haven't been really human in months, ever since I got trapped in this body._ I indicated myself with my beak. _I only feel like my old self when I'm with the others. I did get my morphing power back, but I still can't be human permanently, or I'd have to give up the fight against the Yeerks._

"That's horrible," she whispered. "Our morphing power doesn't work that way. It's impossible for us to get trapped in a morph, so I can only imagine what that must be like."

_Well, it would be worse without my friends. Without them, I'd have nothing keeping me sane, or human._

Shortly after that, Jake and Cassie arrived, followed shortly by Rachel, then Marco, and finally Ax. Ax, I noticed, was still acting cautious towards Susan, and I saw that he was keeping his deadly tail ready.

I didn't blame him. I was keeping an eye on her too, just in case. It never paid to get careless.

Erek arrived last. He walked into the barn and sat down facing Susan. Clearly, he was still fascinated by her.

Jake stepped forward. "Okay, so has anyone had any ideas how to get into the Yeerk pool that we didn't cover last night?"

No one answered. Clearly, no one had had a brainstorm the previous night.

An idea had come to me the previous night, but it seemed so ridiculous that I'd tried to dismiss it. More and more, however, it was looking like something that I had to suggest. The other options were either a midair duel with hunter robots, or giving up.

_Actually…_ I looked down at Rachel, focusing on her blue eyes. _Actually, I think I may have an idea._

"Well, go for it," Marco said. "It's not like anyone else is volunteering."

Everyone looked up at me. I hopped off the rafter, flared my wings and touched down on a hay bale. I looked over at Rachel and then turned to Jake.

If we're going to get into the Yeerk pool, the best way is not to use one of the entrances the Yeerks already know about and are guarding. I think we should make our own.

"How?" Erek asked skeptically. "I mean, I know that you have mole morphs, but as moles it'll take weeks to build a tunnel that stretches all the way down to the Yeerk pool. By then it may be too late."

_Yeah, it would,_ I said. _If we used mole morphs. But we're not going to._

"Then what morph do we use?" Rachel asked. Then she realized exactly what I meant. A morph that we knew could reach the Yeerk pool in only a few hours. But also a morph that only Ax and I had.

_Taxxon,_ I said.


	15. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER 15**

**Ax**

I registered shock at Tobias' words. Not because I didn't think the plan was feasible, but because I hadn't even thought about it.

I should have. Tobias and I were the only ones with Taxxon morphs. We were able to construct a tunnel down to the Yeerk pool on a mission some time ago. It seemed realistic that we could do it again.

_A good plan, Tobias,_ I said. _I cannot believe I didn't think of doing that. With the two of us digging, we could create our own entrance to the Yeerk pool in a matter of hours. Then we could morph bats or birds and fly through into the pool._

"All right, we'll do this," Prince Jake said. "We'll start digging the tunnel tomorrow after school. Tobias, can you find us a quiet place to dig? We're not going to want anyone around."

_I've got a place,_ Tobias said. _It's relatively near the center of the Yeerk pool, and we won't be disturbed by anyone._

"All right, we'll meet up back here tomorrow and then head over to the location to start digging," Prince Jake said. He turned to Susan and Erek. "Sorry, Erek, but you'll probably have to sit this out. Maybe you should go talk to the other Chee. You know, tell them about the Hunters."

Erek nodded. "Good idea. I'll go tell them. Though it might be a good idea to have Susan and at least one of you with me. Just so I'll have proof and they'll listen to me."

"All right," Prince Jake said. "Susan, you can go with Erek tomorrow to talk to the other Chee. Does anyone want to volunteer to go with them?"

Marco's hand shot up. "I'll go," he said, grinning.

"Okay, Marco, you can go," Prince Jake said. "Everyone meet up here tomorrow. Let's hope this plan works."

I spoke to Prince Jake in thought-speak. _Prince Jake, I would recommend that another of us accompany Susan, Erek and Marco to meet with the Chee. Just in case._

Prince Jake nodded. He turned to Susan. "I think two of us should go with Susan and Erek. No offense, Marco, but we need someone who's not going to crack jokes while we're explaining this to the Chee."

"I'll go," Cassie said. "I wouldn't be able to help with the digging anyway."

Prince Jake nodded. "Okay, Marco and Cassie. Tobias, Ax, Rachel and I will take care of the digging. We'll meet up here tomorrow afternoon after we've finished. Good luck."

Something told me, however, that it wasn't going to be nearly as easy as we had planned.


	16. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER 16**

**Tobias**

Jake, Rachel, Ax and I arrived at the barn at roughly the same time the next day. Then we morphed to birds of prey and flew off towards the location that I'd picked out for us to dig from.

When we'd dug into the Yeerk pool as Taxxons before, we'd dug from an underground sewer chamber next to a gas pipeline. When I'd gone down to check it out, I'd found that the pipeline had been repaired, but that the tunnel we'd created had collapsed. We'd have to recreate it, but it would be easier here than it would elsewhere.

_Well, this seems appropriate,_ Jake observed as we landed outside the sewer cover. Jake, Rachel and Ax demorphed. Then Ax pushed the tip of his tail blade into the gap at the edge of the manhole cover like a crowbar and, with a flick of his tail, flipped it up out of the hole and tossed it aside.

"Nice job, Ax," Jake said.

Jake and Rachel morphed wolves and jumped down into the hole, followed by Ax. I forced down the hawk's instinctive fear of being in a tight space and dropped into the hole behind them.

I touched down on the floor of the cavern. Jake turned to me, then looked at Ax. "Okay. Who wants to go first?"

I hopped forward. _I'll go first. This was my idea, after all._

Frankly, I wasn't looking forward to this. The last time I'd morphed a Taxxon, I'd nearly gotten killed. But I was better prepared for the insane hunger of the Taxxon this time, so I shouldn't have as much trouble.

I focused on the image of the Taxxon in my mind. And I began to change.

Hissssssss…

All of the hard parts of my body, all of my bones, my beak, the shafts of my feathers, began to dissolve. But unlike in other morphs, nothing grew to replace them. I was melting, everything congealing into a hideous puddle of liquid, like an oil slick. Then I began to grow as dozens of legs sprouted from either side of my body and I stretched out, my body becoming roughly tubular.

I was taking on the form of a worm, long and shapeless.

My eyes came next. At first, everything was just a muddy blur, but then my brain changed to process the information I was getting, and I could see, in a slightly blurred version of insect vision. Taxxons have compound eyes, like flies. But the Taxxon brain isn't quite sophisticated enough to put all of the pieces together, so it blurs between lenses.

I've compared insect vision to watching TV with your face pressed up against the screen while you twist the color-changing knobs. Taxxon vision is like that, except with the TV getting bad reception.

The mouth formed last. The center of the Taxxon's existence.

And then came the instinct, like a scream of rage, riding up from the depths of the Taxxon mind.

Insane, insane hunger.

It was uncontrollable. I knew that. The Taxxon's hunger could not be controlled. It would take too much effort for me. But I could direct its hunger. And I did.

Suddenly, with ravenous hunger, I began to devour the dirt next to the pipeline.

I was inhaling soil like I hadn't eaten in forty days. I bit off chunks of soil, shredded them with my teeth, coated them with saliva and swallowed them.

I was like the world's biggest and fastest earthworm, as I bit and swallowed and excreted. Yes, I did say excreted. Pounds of soil were passing through my system in seconds. It was just like how an earthworm digs, except that, unlike an earthworm, I had a ring of razor teeth to speed the process. Multiply an earthworm's speed and efficiency by about a million and you get the idea of how fast I was going.

I kept going, eating my way through the soil. There were nutrients in the dirt, but not enough to satisfy my hunger. Just enough to keep me wanting more.

After a while of digging, I heard Jake call in thought-speak, _Tobias, you okay? You're getting near the time limit. Time to let Ax take his turn._

I focused on Jake's voice in my head and, shredding more dirt in my teeth, ate a little more off the sides of the tunnel so I could turn around.

I shot out of the tunnel as fast as an arrow and then activated the Taxxon's hibernation instinct. I imagined hundreds of bodies piled up in front of me, an endless heap. There was enough here. I didn't have to search for food.

The hibernation state allowed me to gain enough self-control over the Taxxon to demorph. I shrank, internal organs forming as Taxxon became hawk.

When I was finished demorphing, Ax morphed Taxxon himself and shot down the tunnel to continue the work.

I had a feeling that, even as Taxxons, this was going to take a while.


	17. Chapter 17

**CHAPTER 17**

**Cassie**

Marco, Susan and Erek arrived at the barn after school. The four of us headed over to Erek's house. Susan was wearing her baseball cap to hide her ears.

When we arrived at Erek's house, his "father," Mr. King, answered the door. His face was expressionless at first, but he nodded to me and Marco.

"Come in," he said, holding the door open as the four of us walked into the house.

Susan looked nervous, and her eyes turned orange as she looked at Mr. King.

Mr. King looked at Susan with an expression of polite interest on his face. "Cassie, Marco. It's very good to see you. But who is your friend?"

Marco nodded to Susan. "Show him."

Susan, her eyes still orange, stood up, removed her baseball cap, exposing her ears, and then pulled her tail down from under her jacket.

Mr. King's eyes widened as he stared at Susan. "It can't be…"

"It is," Erek stated. "She's a Hunter. One of the species we thought had been lost forever. Turns out we were wrong."

"Yeah, well, you know those lost species," Marco said, shaking his head. "They always pop back up at the worst times, don't they?"

Susan's eyes turned violet as she looked over at Marco.

"It's a joke," he explained.

Susan sighed, her eyes turning gray. "Oh, good."

Mr. King stepped forward to Susan. "How did your species survive?"

"We adapted," Susan explained. "We used technology that had once belonged to the Ancestors to give ourselves the power to morph, so we could blend in with other animals and humans to avoid detection. It kept us safe. That's actually how I was born. I'm half human."

Mr. King's eyes had widened even more while she was speaking.

"You are half human, child?" he asked Susan.

"Yes," she said softly. "My mother was human. She died a few years ago."

"I want to show the others," Erek said. "We all have a right to know that the Hunters still exist."

Mr. King nodded.

"You're right, Erek," he said. "Come, young one," he said to Susan. "Let us go to greet your creators."

She nodded and stood up. Marco and I followed.

We walked down the hallway into the disguised elevator that led to the Chee's sanctuary. The elevator descended slowly, and we were all silent until it touched bottom and stopped.

The doors opened and we walked out into a bright light which was dazzling after the darkness of the elevator.

I had been here before, and I was prepared, but even so I gasped softly as I stared at the view.

It was a park. Green grass and occasional trees, stretching off for what had to have been miles. And everywhere, everywhere were dogs. Every kind of breed you could think of, and then some.

And in among the dogs were androids.

The Chee, in their true forms.

For a moment, we weren't noticed.

Then one of the Chee turned and looked over at us. At the little group standing in front of the closed doors. Two humans, two Chee, and a girl with ears and a tail.

The Chee hurried forward towards us, calling to others. In no time at all, dozens of them were gathering. But it was clear that Marco and I weren't the ones who were being noticed. That was Susan. All of the Chee were staring at her. Well, I had to admit, a girl with ears and a tail was much more noticeable than two normal humans.

Besides, I realized, all of the Chee had to know already that Susan was a Hunter. The Chee-net, like a computer link that connects all of the Chee, would have alerted every Chee to exactly who and what she was the instant Erek and Mr. King had sent out the message.

Erek stepped forward. "This is Susan Taronyutsyip," he called, somehow pronouncing her extremely complex name just as easily as she could. "She is a Hunter. You should remember them."

All of the Chee were staring at Susan. It's hard to tell shock on an android's face, but I was fairly sure that was what they were feeling.

"My name is Susan Taronyutsyip," she said in a relatively soft voice. "I am one of the Hunters. Actually, I'm half Hunter, half human. My father is a full-blooded Hunter, and my mother was human. I never knew that the Creators of my species still existed, but now that I do, I am amazed by the knowledge of what you've done for me and for my people. On behalf of the Hunters, I thank you."

Erek then stepped forward and placed his hand on Susan's shoulder. "This young one is not alone, my friends. Other Hunters exist in this area. But they may not be here for long. The Yeerks have invaded the forest and are capturing all of the wolves looking for Hunters. So far, they haven't caught any, but that could change. And I've been told that the Yeerks already have one Hunter imprisoned at the Yeerk pool. Unless we help the Animorphs to rescue this Hunter, another species will end up as the Yeerks' new generation of shock troops, this time a species that we created. We are responsible for the Hunters. And we've gone thousands of years without helping them. It's time to own up to the mistakes we've made in the past. It's our time to stand up and fight for our allies and our creations. It's time for the Chee to stand up and fight!"

"You know as well as we do, Erek," said another of the Chee, stepping forward, "that our programming forbids us from injuring any living thing, even Yeerks."

"Yes, I know that very well," Erek said, looking downwards briefly.

I knew why he looked like that. When we'd first met Erek, he had wanted to find and steal a Pemalite crystal, which the Chee could use to alter their programming so they could join us in the fight. When it counted, Erek used the crystal to save the six of us. He massacred an entire group of human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir.

Afterwards, Erek was horrified by what he had done. He used the crystal to put his programming back in place and explained that, because the Chee have perfect memories, he would remember what he had done to those Controllers forever. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. So I wasn't surprised by Erek's saddened reaction.

Erek lifted his head and his expression was calm again. "Regardless, we have no choice in this. The Hunters are our creations. We brought them into existence, and we have a responsibility to protect them."

As the Chee and Susan continued talking, Marco whispered to me, "Ever feel like a conversation loop has suddenly been formed and you're not in it?"

"Whenever Rachel's talking about fashion," I whispered back.

Marco grinned. "Well, that's not really a good example. When Rachel starts talking about fashion, nobody's in the loop. Not even the person she's talking to."

"Good point," I replied.


	18. Chapter 18

**CHAPTER 18**

**Tobias**

After Ax finished his turn at digging, he shot out of the hole and immediately began to demorph. Once he was fully Andalite, I flew into the tunnel and crash-landed about fifty feet into the tunnel.

_I'm going Taxxon,_ I warned the others.

Once I'd morphed, I summoned the Taxxon hunger and shot further down the tunnel until I reached the end and turned the Taxxon's hunger loose on the dirt wall.

On and on I dug, biting off big clumps of dirt, coating them with saliva to hold them together, shredding them with my razor teeth and swallowing the dirt.

I kept eating, digging further and further through the dirt towards the Yeerk pool.

As I kept going, I started encountering rocks. At first, they were small enough that I could simply grind them up with my teeth and swallow them.

Eventually, the rocks started getting bigger, and I was forced to dig detours around them.

Then I reached something smooth, like a wall. At first I wondered if it was the foundation of some old building, but when I realized how smooth it was, I knew what this really was. I'd made it. I'd reached the Yeerk pool.

Having cleared an open space, I demorphed, then remorphed to Taxxon and began widening the cavern at the end of the tunnel.

Once the cavern was wide enough for the others to fit through, I knew there was only one more thing I needed to do. I needed to make a hole in the dome itself, a hole we could use to enter the Yeerk pool.

Ordinarily, I would have had no clue how to do this. Fortunately, I'd done this before, and the Taxxon knew how.

I opened my mouth to maximum capacity and rotated my razor teeth so that they scraped the concrete like a drill. Caustic Taxxon saliva ate into and dissolved the stone.

I gnawed deep into the shell of the dome, a hole almost as wide as the tunnel itself. I began to feel somewhat ill, but I kept going, kept burrowing into the concrete. Then, as I dug deeper and deeper, I finally saw a flicker of red light.

The last of the concrete crumbled beneath my gnawing teeth, and I was through.

I looked down and saw the pool below me. It was a crazy, mixed-up hell on Earth. I could see the pool, filled with Yeerks as they absorbed Kandrona rays. I could also see the rows of cages, like seats in an auditorium, which were filled with Hork-Bajir and humans. Involuntary hosts.

I didn't look too closely, afraid that I might identify some of the faces below me. But I saw enough to know that there were more than there had been the last time.

Near that area was an area for the voluntary hosts. It looked like a resort or community center. Most of the residents were Taxxons, but some of them were humans.

I needed to see better so I could locate the Hunter that the Yeerks were holding. I began to demorph.

The Taxxon's extra legs shriveled up and were sucked back into my sides, as my tubular body shrank and became covered in feathers. My Taxxon mouth became a hooked, tearing beak and my gelatinous, multifaceted Taxxon eyes became cold, piercing hawk eyes. Two of the Taxxon legs became hawk wings, while another pair swelled into hawk legs and feet and split to form talons.

I stared down at the pool, looking for any signs of the Hunter that the Yeerks had here. I scanned the cavern, looking at the areas where there were more guards than there should be.

Then I noticed. Near the buildings, there were about half a dozen Hork-Bajir standing around, armed with Dracon beams. It was very clear that they were guarding something. They were all standing around one shed.

I turned and started morphing again. But not Taxxon this time. I was morphing something much more similar to my own form. My feathered wings changed, the single bone of a bird wing splitting lengthwise into five bones. Four remained long and thin, three moving beneath the flesh of my changing wings to take up their places as very long, stretched-out fingers. My thumb extended out through the flesh as it sprouted, forming a curved claw on each wing. My feathers melted away, my wings becoming little more than stretched skin between the bones. I shrank, becoming much smaller than a hawk. I was becoming a bat.

The bat's final adaptation came last. I opened my mouth and sent out a burst of echolocation clicks that came back, highlighting the world in silver. I flapped my wings and sped into the tunnel, flapping and letting the glow of the Yeerk pool disappear behind me.

A few minutes of flight later, I shot out into the drain chamber.

_Tobias? How's it going?_ Jake asked.

I landed and began to demorph. _I just broke through. We're in._ Then I noticed something. _Shouldn't you two have demorphed by now?_

_We demorphed and remorphed while you were down there digging,_ Rachel explained.

I was finished demorphing. I turned to Jake. _Okay, Jake, you guys better demorph. We'll meet up with the others tomorrow at the barn and come back here. I think I found out where they're keeping the Hunter._

_Cool,_ Rachel said as she and Jake began to demorph. _Let's hope that Cassie and Marco's luck was as good as ours._


	19. Chapter 19

**CHAPTER 19**

**Marco**

Well, our little expedition into the Chee's hideout went pretty well. Funny, I hadn't known that Erek was that good of a speaker. Then again, he'd probably gotten plenty of practice back in the years when the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing.

Well, long story short, the Chee accepted Susan and the reality that the Hunters existed more openly and calmly than I'd thought they would have. All it took to convince them was to show them Susan. That, for the Chee, was enough. Well, seeing Susan, plus Erek broadcasting everything Susan had told him over the Chee-net.

The next afternoon, the six of us, plus Susan and Erek, met up in the barn. Susan's eyes were green today, which she'd explained meant that she was happy. She'd tried to teach me what some of the Hunters' different eye colors meant, but I'd already decided I was going to need an index to remember them all. All I knew was that green was happy, pink was embarrassed, orange was nervous, purple was shocked, violet was surprised, and yellow was focused or concentrating.

First, Tobias described what they'd been doing the previous day.

_The tunnel is finished,_ Tobias reported from the rafters. _It took about three or four hours, but Ax and I managed to get it done. The tunnel is high up in the Yeerk pool dome, so we'll have to morph bats and fly in. I tested the bat morph, and it can easily fly through the tunnel, so we don't need to worry about that._

"Good," I said. "The last thing we need is trying to fly through the tunnel and smacking into the walls because it wasn't big enough."

_Well, you don't need to worry about that,_ Tobias said. _There'll be plenty of room. We made the tunnel easily wide enough for us even if we weren't bats._

"Yeah, getting stuck is not going to be a problem," Jake said. "So how'd the meeting with the Chee go?"

"Extremely well," Erek said. "The other Chee accepted the Hunters' existence with only a small amount of convincing needed."

"Erek demonstrated his mad political speaking skills," I said.

"Nice work," Rachel said, nodding to Erek.

"Well, it was also mostly Susan," he explained. "Without her there as physical proof of the Hunters' existence, I'm not sure they would have believed me."

Susan smiled shyly and looked down, her eyes turning pink and then green again. "Thank you," she said.

I grinned and put one hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you did great, Susan."

She smiled at me, her green eyes sparkling. Rachel made some sort of gagging sound, but I ignored her.

_Look, are we going to do this or not?_ Tobias asked.

That was when it hit me. There might be one problem with our plan.

I turned to Susan. "Susan, what morphs do you have? Do you have any bird morphs?"

She considered. "Not really. I never really need to morph, except into my human form. Really, the only morphs I have are you, a trout, an ant, and a raven."

"Well, then, we'll have to get you some other morphs, if you want to come with us," Jake said.

"I do, believe me," Susan said. "I have to rescue that Hunter, and I can't let you go in without help."

"Oh, I think we'll manage just fine," Rachel said. "Where would we find her a morph, anyway?"

"Well, she doesn't need a battle morph," I pointed out. "She can change into a full Hunter whenever she wants to. But she needs a bird of prey morph and a bat morph, if we can get her one."

"Well, I've got some choices for her here," Cassie said. "I have a Cooper's hawk here right now. He flew into a power line a few days ago and got zapped pretty badly. He should survive, but the important thing is that Susan could acquire his DNA."

"I don't suppose we'd be lucky enough that you have a bat, too," I said.

Cassie grinned. "As a matter of fact, yes, I do. So we're covered."

Cassie walked over to Susan. "Okay, Susan, time to get some new morphs."


	20. Chapter 20

**CHAPTER 20**

**Susan**

Cassie led me to one of the cages. Inside it was a type of hawk, smaller than Tobias, but still looking fairly dangerous.

"All right, Susan, go ahead," Cassie prompted me.

I carefully inserted my hand into the cage, my eyes shifting into orange as I gingerly touched the hawk's wing. I focused and began to absorb the hawk's DNA into myself. The hawk became limp with the trance of acquisition, and I took my hand away. My eyes turned green again.

"Okay, try to morph," Cassie urged me.

I closed my eyes and focused on the DNA of the hawk contained in me.

And I began to change.

Feathers materialized all over my body, in a rippling wave of feathers that rapidly became three-dimensional. My feet split into four toes that hardened to become talons, and my mouth and nose extended outwards into a beak. My ears disappeared, sucked down into my head, and my tail shrank to match the rest of me, although it did not disappear.

The changes ceased. The morphing was complete. I was no longer human or Hunter. I was a hawk.

I looked up and saw the others staring at me in shock. Everyone except Marco had seemed surprised by how fast I had morphed.

I had one problem. I hadn't realized that, since I wouldn't be getting the animal's instincts, I had no idea how to do anything. I wouldn't be overpowered by its instincts, but I also didn't know how to do anything that the animal would normally do.

I looked up at Tobias. _How does it work?_

_What do you mean?_ he asked.

_I should have mentioned this earlier. When we Hunters morph, we do not receive any of the animal's instincts. This means we are able to control it without problems, but it also means we do not automatically know how to do certain things. Like, for example, flying._

"You have got to be kidding!" Rachel said. "You didn't get anything from the animal?"

I turned to her. _No. I know this animal can fly. But without the instincts, I will need to learn how to fly by myself._

"Well, this is just perfect," Rachel said. "And, once again, thank you for mentioning this, Marco."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" Marco said.

I looked up at Tobias. _So, Tobias, can you teach me how to fly?_

_Probably, but right now you need to acquire the bat morph,_ Tobias said. You had better demorph.

I demorphed, shooting up as my feathers were absorbed, my talons melted into feet again, and my beak became a mouth and nose again. Teeth formed in my mouth last.

I turned to Cassie. "So where is the bat?"

Cassie picked up a small cage with a bat inside and held it out to me. "Here you go," she said.

I reached inside the cage, picked up the bat and began to absorb its DNA. The bat went into the trance, and I placed it carefully back inside the cage.

"All right," Jake said as Cassie replaced the cage with the bat inside. "We have an open tunnel into the Yeerk pool, and we have morphs for the job."

_We still need a plan to reach the Hunter without being caught, Prince Jake,_ Ax said.

"Right," Jake said. "We'll morph bats and fly into the Yeerk pool. We can land down on the bottom in some place where we won't get spotted, demorph, and remorph. We can use fly morphs to get over to the shed where the Hunter is being kept and break him out."

_One problem, Jake,_ Tobias said. _We're forgetting something. This Hunter may not have a bird or bat morph. If he doesn't, how do we get him out of there?_

Jake stared at Tobias for a long moment.

"Good question," Marco said.

"We'll just have to hope he has one," Rachel said. "We can't leave him there any longer, regardless."

Jake nodded. "Okay, we'll meet up at the tunnel site tomorrow after school. Let's hope this plan works."

After we left the barn, I walked back into the forest, feeling happy and yet nervous at the same time. I was fairly confident that we could get into the Yeerk pool, whatever it was, but I was also nervous that I would have to fly without the instincts or natural preparation that the actual animal had.

Well, it couldn't possibly be as bad as the fight down in the Yeerk pool itself would be.

Couldn't it?


	21. Chapter 21

**CHAPTER 21**

**Tobias**

_Watch it, Susan!_ I yelled, and banked right before Susan tumbled through the space where I had just been.

We'd been airborne for about half an hour, and so far Susan had ruined every maneuver that birds of prey could make in flight.

_Sorry, Tobias,_ Susan called. _It's difficult without the instincts of how to fly._

_Tell me about it,_ Rachel said. She and the others were staying as far away from Susan as they could, so she wouldn't accidentally crash into anyone. I was the only one near her.

_Look, just follow my lead,_ I said. I made a gentle, banking turn. _Tilt your wings to your right gently and straighten them._

I watched as Susan made a clumsy, but successful banking turn.

_Got it!_ she cried. _Thank you for agreeing to teach me, Tobias._

_No problem,_ I said. _Now let's get over there._

I hitched a ride on a thermal and shot up. Susan, who I had taught how to do this earlier, was right behind me. She was nowhere near as graceful as the rest of us, but she could fly, and, considering she'd had no idea how to fly yesterday, I personally thought she'd done quite well.

One by one, the seven of us touched down on the ground by the gas pipeline. Susan skidded on landing and "stopped" by crashing into a bush, but at least she'd made it down without dive-bombing headfirst into the ground. That was progress.

Once we were down, the others demorphed, Ax used his tail to open the manhole cover again, and we all hopped down into the pipeline chamber. I went last, dropping down behind Susan.

I touched down at the bottom and looked around. The tunnel that Ax and I had made was still there, a large hole in the dirt wall.

_Okay, time to get moving,_ I said.

"Everyone morph bat," Jake ordered.

I focused on the bat DNA inside my body, and began to morph.

I shrank, and the bones in my wings once again shifted and reshaped themselves into the leathery wings of a bat. I opened my mouth and fired out a burst of sound waves that bounced back as echolocation, painting the chamber silver in my head. I saw the others as they finished morphing. Susan, meanwhile, had already finished morphing, but was looking around the dark chamber like she was blind.

Oh, great. She didn't have the bat's instincts, so she didn't know how to use echolocation.

_Susan, the bat knows how to do this. Send out sound clicks and listen for the echoes._

Susan dutifully opened her mouth and fired out a pulse of sound. She was quiet for a moment, then gasped in thought-speak as she received the echoes.

_Whoa!_ she said. _This is amazing._ She sent out another burst of clicks, monitoring the echoes.

The others had all finished morphing by this time.

_Let's get going,_ Jake said.

I flapped my wings and shot towards the tunnel. The others followed me. This time, Susan already knew how to fly and was able to follow us more quickly.

We shot through the tunnel, wings beating, echolocation illuminating the tunnel in my mind.

Then I saw light up ahead. We shot through the exit and blew out of the tunnel, into the vast cavern of the Yeerk pool.

Looking down, I saw the lights of the Yeerk pool below. We circled just below the tunnel opening, looking down.

I spotted the shed where I'd seen the Hork-Bajir guards two days ago. _There,_ I told Jake, indicating the shed with one wingtip. _He's down there._

You're sure? Jake asked.

_Pretty sure,_ I said. _There were about half a dozen Hork-Bajir guarding it two days ago, so I'm pretty sure that's where the Hunter is._

_Okay, good. We'll land, demorph, and morph Hork-Bajir. Then we can check the place out and find a way to rescue the Hunter._

And then things went crazy.

I was looking around with my echolocation, scanning the area. And that's when I saw it.

Two silvery spheres, about the size of beach balls, were gliding towards us. They were about a hundred yards away and closing.

_Hunter robots!_ I yelled.

_Get close to the rock!_ Jake yelled. _Maybe that'll mess up their aim!_

TSEEEWWW! TSEEEWWW!

One of the hunter robots fired. Twin narrow Dracon beams sliced through the air and struck the rock near me.

Susan swerved wildly and came within inches of crashing into the rock wall.

She was going to end up either crashing or being shot by the hunter robots. I banked and shot toward her.

_Susan!_ I yelled. _Spread your wings evenly! Flap as hard and fast as you can! Try to make your wings meet on the upstroke!_

Susan was flapping hard, and she began to rise. But she was going slowly.

Too slowly to dodge the next shot.

TSEEEWWW!

_AAAHHH!_

_SUSAN!_ Marco screamed in my head.

I saw the Dracon beam burn clean through Susan's wing, leaving a hole about the size of a quarter. Her flight became even more erratic. Now she was spinning, the injured wing unable to help her gain lift.

_Aim for the visual system!_ Ax yelled.

_Got it!_ Rachel yelled.

Rachel, Jake and Ax shot in. Rachel, as it turned out, had a good strategy. She flew in, slammed into the hunter robot, and dug in with her claws, clinging to the robot.

One of her wings wrapped firmly over the camera lens.

The robot veered away like it was lost, with Rachel still clinging to it.

Jake and Ax hit the remaining hunter robot dead on, knocking it sideways as they attempted to grab the lens. Neither of them managed to get a firm grip and both of them immediately swerved away as the robot fired.

TSEEEWWW!

The Dracon beams missed. The robot turned.

It was targeting Rachel, who was still clinging to the other robot, blocking its camera lens.

Rachel's robot was firing blindly, attempting to hit one of us through luck. Most of the shots weren't even close, but some were dangerously near us.

Marco and I reached Susan at the same instant. I grabbed her by the fur at the scruff of the neck with my hind claws, while Marco did the same thing, grabbing her feet with his.

_I can hang on the rocks if you can get me close enough,_ Susan gasped through the pain from her Dracon beam wound.

We swerved towards the tunnel entrance. Marco released his grip on Susan's hind claws just in time for her to grab a ledge near the entrance to the tunnel and hang on.

Susan latched onto the rocks just a few feet from the tunnel entrance. If we could lift her up into the tunnel, she could demorph. But if she demorphed here, she'd plummet to her death as her bat feet became human feet and it became impossible to hold onto the cave wall.

I turned back towards the fight at the exact moment the second robot fired at Rachel, still clinging to the first.

TSEEEWWW!

Rachel released her grip and plummeted away from the hunter robot, just as the second robot's Dracon beam struck the first.

BOOM!

The first hunter robot blew apart, a fireball followed by small pieces of shattered debris raining down towards the pool below.

Rachel, flapping hard, leveled out about twenty feet below the explosion and accelerated towards the rock wall.

Jake and Ax shot in again and slammed into the second robot just as it fired again. The shot went wide.

_AAAHHH!_ Rachel yelled as the Dracon beam struck her.

_RACHEL!_ I yelled.

Rachel spiraled downward. The Dracon beam had burned through her wing.

_Stay with Susan!_ I snapped at Marco and plunged.

As I shot downward, I began to demorph. I needed my own hawk body. And fortunately, I could go from bat to hawk in midair, as both were flyers.

Feathers sprouted over my body, and I lost my echolocation but gained my extraordinarily sharp hawk vision. My wings changed from the leathery wings of a bat to the feathered wings of a hawk. My bat feet expanded, split and hardened into talons.

In a matter of about twenty seconds, I went from bat to hawk. I plunged toward Rachel, who was still falling towards the Yeerk pool complex. I flared my wings, decelerated, and snatched her in my talons, cradling her gently as I flapped my wings and rose towards the ceiling.

She looked up at me. _Tobias?_

_Yeah. I demorphed while I was diving toward you._

_Thanks,_ she said.

_You're welcome. I'll drop you back into the tunnel entrance and you can demorph and remorph. I'd suggest going eagle, we're gonna need firepower._

_I'm on it,_ she agreed. _Just get me up there._

_Got it._ I looked up to see Jake, Cassie and Ax making another run at the hunter robot. They hit it broadside, knocking it sideways, but didn't take it down.

_We need to take out that camera lens,_ I said. _But they can't get a grip on the robot like you did._

_You can do it,_ Rachel said. _Hit the lens with your talons, as hard as you can. You might be able to break the lens._

_I have to get you up there first,_ I said. _I increased my speed, beating my wings harder as I carried Rachel up towards the tunnel._

When I reached the tunnel entrance, I flapped into the tunnel and dropped Rachel on the ground inside. She immediately began to demorph. I turned to her.

_I'm going to get Susan in here, and then I'll go help the others. Just finish demorphing and then morph eagle and get in this. I'll be back._

I unfolded my wings and jumped over the edge of the ledge. I flapped and swept in towards where Marco was circling below Susan as she clung to the ledge.

_Susan, I'm going to get you back to the ledge so you can demorph, okay?_

She looked over at me. _Tobias, you need to help the others stop that hunter robot, and besides…_ She paused. _I haven't been completely honest with you. I forgot to mention another difference between my morphing power and yours._

_What difference?_

In response, she released her grip on the rock, unfolded her wings and plunged.

_Susan!_ Marco yelled. He dove after her, as did I. But then something odd happened.

Susan began to change. But not into her original form.

Her bat feet melted and split into talons, and feathers sprouted across her body.

_What in the…_ I stopped, realizing what I was seeing.

Susan was becoming a Cooper's hawk.


	22. Chapter 22

**CHAPTER 22**

**Susan**

I released my grip on the rock and plunged. All the time, my mind was racing with one thought.

How could I have been so stupid?

I hadn't even remembered a very important fact about my morphing power. Namely, the fact that I could go from one form to another without demorphing first. I would still have to demorph eventually, but it would work regardless. It wasn't as easy as morphing from my original form to another, but it could be done.

As I unfolded my wings and spread them as wide as they would go to slow my descent, I focused on the DNA of the Cooper's hawk I had acquired.

And I began to change.

Fortunately for me, the first things that changed were my wings. The leathery, thin flesh of a bat's wing began thickening and sprouted feathers, like a rippling wave that grew to cover me.

My feet became talons as I grew larger. Not much larger, but bigger than I had been as a bat.

My amazing echolocation vanished, but in response my eyesight sharpened to the incredible intensity and precision of a hawk. My brown fur became brown and white feathers, and my mouth and nose became a hooked, tearing beak.

I flapped my newly restored wings and accelerated towards the remaining hunter robot, which was shooting at Jake, Cassie and Ax now to prevent them from getting close enough to strike at the camera lens. I flapped harder to gain altitude, then folded my wings and dove towards the hunter robot.

_Tobias, Marco, follow me!_ I cried as I dove towards the hunter robot. Tobias hurtled after me, but Marco, being slower, took longer to gain altitude.

_Okay, Susan,_ Tobias said. _The two of us dive at the same time, hit with all of our weight. Aim for the camera lens. Ready?_

_Yes,_ I said, lying.

_Go!_

We dove as one, hurtling downwards towards the hunter robot. I locked onto the camera lens with my laser-focus hawk eyes.

Three… Two… One…

In the instant before impact, we flared our wings and our talons raked forward.

WHAM!

Tobias and I hit the hunter robot at the same time. The robot lurched wildly as it tried to stay upright in the air.

I saw Tobias's talons latch onto the camera lens and dig in. He flared his wings and spread them against the robot, completely blocking the camera lens.

The hunter robot began veering off course, towards the rock wall. I had been dazed by the force of the impact, and I was flapping in an attempt to gain altitude.

The hunter robot was now firing wildly in an attempt to hit us, although Tobias was blocking the lens. It was now heading straight for the rock wall, although the robot didn't seem to know that. Tobias was still clinging to the front of it, blocking the camera.

And therefore directly between the hunter robot and the oncoming cliff.

I powered forward, yelling at Tobias in thought-speak.

_Tobias, let go! It's going to crush you against the wall!_

That was when I realized something Tobias already had; if he let go, the hunter robot would be in a perfect position to shoot him.

Then I saw a blur of movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Rachel in her bald eagle morph diving toward me.

_The robot is going to smash Tobias into the wall!_ I yelled, flapping my wings harder as I accelerated towards the hunter robot.

_Not if we can help it,_ Rachel said, her voice cold. _Tobias!_ she yelled. _Get ready to let go, and go straight down when you do._

_Got it,_ he called. _A little help would be very appreciated right now._

_Guys,_ Rachel called, _let's give this thing everything we've got. All of us hit at the same time. Top speed._

Jake chuckled. _Somehow I knew you were going to suggest that. Okay, everyone head straight at the robot. All together._

We all accelerated. Four bats, a bald eagle, and a Cooper's hawk accelerating straight towards the hunter robot.

Because Tobias was still clinging to it and blocking the camera lens, the hunter robot, which was still gliding straight towards the rock wall, had no idea that we were all rushing toward it.

_NOW!_ Rachel yelled.

Tobias released his grip on the hunter robot, folded his wings and plunged out of range.

The hunter robot began to slow and turn just as all six of us slammed into it. The robot was knocked off-balance and tumbled straight into the rock wall right as its Dracon beams discharged.

TSEEEWWW-BOOM!

The hunter robot blew apart in a fireball as its Dracon beams fired at point-blank range into the solid rock. The Dracon beams overloaded and exploded, blowing the robot apart.

_YES!_ I cheered. The others joined in for a few seconds. Then Jake cut in.

_All right, guys, take five seconds to celebrate, then let's start heading down there. We've still got a Hunter to rescue._


	23. Chapter 23

**CHAPTER 23**

**Jake**

We landed as close to the shed where the Hunter was being held as we could. The seven of us demorphed, and then Rachel, Marco, Cassie, Tobias, Ax and I morphed Hork-Bajir.

That was when I realized we had a problem.

_Susan doesn't have a Hork-Bajir morph. So how is she going to stay hidden? I think the Yeerks will notice a girl with ears and a tail._

_Wait, you have an ant morph, right, Susan?_ Rachel asked.

"Yes," Susan said. "I haven't morphed it very often. The one time I did, I got attacked by other ants."

_Yeah, we've experienced that,_ Rachel said. I could tell she was trying not to remember what had happened in the ant tunnels. We'd morphed ants, gone down into the tunnels, and been attacked by soldier ants from another colony.

I still have nightmares about that. We all do.

_So you can morph ant and hang onto one of us,_ I said. _Then you can hop off when we make our move and demorph._

"Good idea," Susan said. Already, she was shrinking rapidly as her skin became the hard exoskeleton of an ant and her body pinched itself into three segments. An extra pair of legs shot out of her sides, and she shrank until she was so small I couldn't see her with the dim vision of a Hork-Bajir.

_All right,_ she said a few seconds later. _I am fully morphed._

_Climb up onto my shoulder,_ Marco said in thought-speak.

I placed my hand on the floor and watched until Susan had crawled up onto it. Then I lifted my hand and placed her gently onto Marco's shoulder.

_Well, let's get moving,_ Rachel said.

_The shed the Hunter's in is that way,_ Tobias said.

The six of us who were in Hork-Bajir morph started walking towards where we hoped the Hunter was being kept prisoner. Rachel and I took the lead, with Tobias and Marco following us and Cassie and Ax in the back.

As it turned out, we ended up walking right past the shed.

There were four Hork-Bajir-Controllers on guard duty, just standing around the shed looking bored. But they all had Dracon beams, and it was clear they were ready for trouble.

Now, the easy way this could go was if I was able to simply convince the Hork-Bajir that we were here to take their place on guard. Hopefully, they would leave and we could get the Hunter out fast and easy.

_Cassie, Ax, hang back,_ I ordered. _We need to have the same number that they do. They'll be more likely to believe we're here to replace them that way._

_Very well, Prince Jake,_ Ax said.

_Ax? You really, really, really don't have to call me prince._

_Yes, Prince Jake. Good luck._

Ax and Cassie turned and walked casually away as I walked towards the four Hork-Bajir guards.

The nearest Hork-Bajir turned towards me and placed his hand on the grip of his Dracon beam. "Who are you?" the Hork-Bajir asked.

"Here to relieve you. Visser's orders," I answered as coolly as I could manage.

The Hork-Bajir turned towards the entrance of the shed. "We clear this with Rasant 327 first. He in charge of containment."

"Of course," I said.

The Hork-Bajir turned to the tent and called something in the Hork-Bajir language. A moment later, a human-Controller exited the shed. He was about thirty, with blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

Behind me, I heard Rachel let out a hiss in thought-speak. Then she spoke in private thought-speak. _Jake, that's the guy who Cassie and I talked to in the forest. He's the guy who was in charge of rounding up the wolves._

"Well, well, well," the human-Controller said. "So the Visser sent you, did he? Well, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if we talk to him about that as soon as he gets here. Which should be any minute now." He gestured to the Hork-Bajir, who pulled out their Dracon beams and pointed them at us.

_This was bad._

_Jake? What now?_ Rachel asked, tensing to fight. _If this guy recognizes me, he'll know we're not really Hork-Bajir._

_Just stay calm,_ I said. _We still have a chance. Susan, can you get inside the shed and demorph?_

_Yes, Jake. I am fairly confident I can make it inside._

_All right, good,_ I said. _Okay, let's keep this guy busy talking until Susan can get inside and demorph. With her as a Hunter we may be able to get the other Hunter out without us having to get in at all._

_I hope this works, Jake,_ Tobias said in private thought-speak that only the seven of us could hear.

_Yeah,_ I replied quietly. _Me, too._


	24. Chapter 24

**CHAPTER 24**

**Susan**

I was in ant morph, clinging to Marco's shoulder as the Animorphs spoke with the Hork-Bajir guarding the shed.

_I am going in,_ I said. I released my grip on Marco's shoulder and launched myself into the empty air.

It wasn't so much a jump as that I rolled off Marco's shoulder and fell.

Falling… falling… WHUMPF!

I hit the ground on my back, rolled over, and set off towards the shed. My six legs motored across the ground as I pushed the ant body for all the speed it was worth. I passed through the shadow of the human-Controller and near one of his gigantic feet.

When I entered the darkness that meant I was inside the shed, I first scuttled sideways, meaning that I would not be visible to those who were standing outside the door, and then began to demorph.

My body expanded impossibly fast. My middle pair of legs softened and were sucked back into my body as the hard insect exoskeleton became soft human skin and clothes again.

My ears sprouted from my head, first human ears and then shooting outward as they developed the extra joints that allowed them to rotate. My tail sprouted from the base of my spine and shot outward, fur growing to cover it as red hair spilled down the back of my head and my human mouth formed.

I felt a slight tickling sensation as the tendrils that were normally tucked into the gum line sprouted before my teeth and gums could grow. As my teeth appeared, I flexed my jaw muscles and the tendrils were retracted into my gums.

Then it was done. I was complete. All traces of the ant morph were gone. I was myself again.

Fortunately, there were no guards inside the shed. Not that they were needed.

In the semidarkness inside the shed, my sensitive ears detected the sound of ragged, weak breathing from somewhere inside the shed.

I looked over towards the other wall and saw it. Heavy metal chains were anchored to the wall. And held within those shackles was what I immediately recognized as a Hunter in human form.

He resembled a tall, muscular human male, with long black hair that spilled over his shoulders. His hands were still shifted part of the way into paws, with his five toes having become fingers, but still with the five curved claws of his additional toes extending from the back of his hand, curving out over his fingers. He still had the ears and tail of a Hunter, like me, only his fur was dark gray, not white as mine was. In addition, his entire body was covered with a thin coating of dark gray hair, visible where it wasn't covered by cloth. He was wearing a pair of old, torn jeans and a stained T-shirt.

I stepped cautiously forward, toward him.

Upon hearing my footsteps, he lifted his head, bringing his face into view.

I gasped.

His eyes were a highly unusual shade of pale gray.

The eyes of Hunters change color to express our emotions. I have experienced most of these. This emotion was one I had only seen once before. Briefly, in my father's eyes.

On the day my mother had died.

Dark gray was the color of exhaustion or relief. White was the color of terror, of great fear.

Pale gray of this color was despair. The color of the loss of all hope, of complete desperation, of an utterly crushed soul.

The thought briefly crossed my mind that we might already be too late to save this Hunter.

Then he heard my gasp. His eyes locked onto my face. My eyes had turned orange to express how nervous I was at seeing a Hunter like this.

"What do you want?" he whispered in a harsh, rasping voice that showed his throat likely hurt. "I told you everything I know."

I stepped forward, into the light. Revealing my ears and the white-furred tail that waved behind me.

His eyes changed color three times in five seconds. They changed teal, then purple, and then bright, bright green.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

"My name is Susan Taronyutsyip," I said. "And I am here to free you, my friend."

His eyes blazed, continuing to shift colors in a kaleidoscope of emotions.

"How… how did you get here?" he asked.

"It wasn't easy," I said. "But right now, we have to get you out of here."

"They drugged me," he groaned. "The drug makes it impossible for me to shift into full wolf form. If I could become a full Hunter, I could break these chains. But I need the antidote for the drug. The human-Controller who was in here – Rasant – left a canister containing the antidote inside. It is over there." He gestured with his chin towards the far corner of the shed.

I hurried over to the white plastic container lying near the wall, as far from the chained Hunter as possible. There were several syringes inside, each type with a different-colored label on it. Three of the syringes were marked with a red label, three with a blue label, and three more with a green label.

"The blue one is the antidote," the Hunter groaned from the other side of the room. "The green is the drug itself, and the red causes extreme pain by oversensitizing the nervous system."

"They tortured you?" I asked, shock filling my voice and turning my eyes purple.

"Yes," he whispered, "at first. They attempted to gain information through the use of torture. But in the end, they decided to use the easier method."

I knew exactly what he must mean.

"They put a Yeerk in your head?" I asked softly.

"Yes," he whispered, his voice breaking. "It was the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me. Every motion, any control over my body, was gone."

"What is your name?" I asked.

"'Awkx Txepiva," he answered, pronouncing it as Awk Teh-pi-va. "They captured me about six weeks ago. I had given up all hope that I would ever be free."

"Don't worry, my friend," I said, withdrawing one of the blue syringes from the case. "Soon you will be free."

"Thank you, Susan Taronyutsyip," he whispered, gratitude in his voice as his eyes flared green.

I hurried over to him and raised the syringe. "Tilt your head to the left," I said.

'Awkx Txepiva nodded, smiled and leaned his head to the side. Carefully, I inserted the needle into the side of his neck and pushed down the plunger. I waited until all of the antidote had entered his vein before I withdrew the needle.

Txepiva smiled as the antidote coursed through his veins and the drug wore off.

"I have allies outside," I said. "They will look like Hork-Bajir, but they will use thought-speak, so you will know who they are."

"Are they Hunters?"

"No," I said. "They are other beings who possess the morphing power."

"Andalites?" There was a gleam of green in Txepiva's eyes.

For a moment, I wondered how Txepiva knew about Andalites, but then I remembered that he had had a Yeerk in his brain, so he would know everything the Yeerk had known about Andalites.

"There is one," I said, "but the rest are humans who were given the morphing power."

His eyes lit up violet. "The Andalite bandits are human?"

"Yes," I said. "The Yeerks have no idea that they are human, and they can never find out."

Determination filled Txepiva's face. "I would rather die than be a Yeerk prisoner again."

I smiled. "Why don't you see if you can break the chains?"

Txepiva looked over at me. "One thing more. The one called Rasant 327 is mine. He was the one whom they put in my brain to inspect my memories."

I smiled, my eyes flaring green. "Fine with me."

Txepiva smiled coldly, his eyes turning black, the color of murderous rage. "Then let us make an end to this, Susan Taronyutsyip."

I smiled. "Let's take care of those vile slugs once and for all. They'll learn not to mess with the Hunters."

"Indeed," Txepiva said, a grim smile crossing his face.

Txepiva let out a growl as his fur grew longer, spreading over his entire body. His ears shifted position, moving to the top of his head. His hands and feet became paws, and his teeth multiplied and lengthened, becoming the fearsome teeth of a Hunter.

As he continued to change, Txepiva began straining against his chains, and the screech of metal under stress filled the air.

Then there was a metallic bang, like the sound of a gunshot, as one of the chains snapped. Another quickly followed, as snarls ripped from Txepiva's throat and he bared his gleaming teeth.

In a matter of a few seconds, Txepiva had broken through all of the chains and had dropped forward onto all fours, now fully in his Hunter shape. His eyes gleamed, now colored as black as night, and he snarled.

_Come, child,_ he said in thought-speak. _Let's get out of here._

I was already shifting to full Hunter form, feeling the white fur rapidly grow and spread in a rippling wave to cover me. I fell forward onto all fours as my hands and feet became paws and my teeth multiplied and grew into the fearsome weapons of a Hunter.

Then I heard Marco's voice in my head. _Uh, Susan? If you're going to get that Hunter out of there, now would be a very good time. Right now._

_Go!_ I yelled at Txepiva in thought-speak and launched myself towards the door, with the other Hunter right behind me.


	25. Chapter 25

**CHAPTER 25**

**Rachel**

I was standing as still as I could, trying not to make eye contact with that human-Controller. If he recognized me, we were in big trouble.

Jake was at the front, facing the human-Controller. Cassie and Ax were standing some distance away, hopefully far enough away that the Controllers here wouldn't realize they were with us.

In private thought-speak, Jake said, _Marco, call Susan. Tell her to hurry up and get out of–_

That was when the ceiling split.

A massive hole opened in the top of the Yeerk pool dome. It went straight up, all the way to the surface.

And descending through the hole was a Bug fighter.

_Three guesses who that is,_ Tobias muttered.

_Marco, now,_ Jake ordered.

_Got it, Big Jake,_ Marco said. _Uh, Susan?_ he called in thought-speak that he was leaving open for all six of us, plus Susan. _If you're going to get that Hunter out of there, now would be a very good time. Right now._

An instant later, we heard a thought-speak yell from inside the shed. _Go!_

And then two Hunters hurtled out of the shed. They looked like wolves, just with long, curved claws extending from the backs of their feet over their toes. One, Susan, was white-furred. The other was larger, and its fur was dark gray.

Susan hit one of the Hork-Bajir, knocking it off its feet. The other barreled past and slammed into the human-Controller, knocking him off his feet.

_At 'em! NOW!_ Jake yelled.

We charged, blades flashing. I swung one arm, my wrist blade slicing open the throat of the first Hork-Bajir in my path. Susan sank her teeth into the throat of the Hork-Bajir she had knocked over and bit down, tendrils extending from her gums and sending the Hork-Bajir into spasms until it stopped struggling. The other two reached for their Dracon beams, but Jake, Tobias and Marco were faster. Both Hork-Bajir went down fast.

_Remember me, Rasant?_ the second Hunter snarled in thought-speak. _You invaded my brain. You took over my body and made me into a slave. The only consolation was that you felt the pain that I had been feeling, instead of me. But now I am free, and you are the one who is powerless. Now leave this human, or I will rip your host body's throat out and watch you die inside it._

The human-Controller's face worked desperately. Then his eyes twitched to the side.

And he laughed. His laughter rang out, long, loud and harsh.

"I haven't lost, Hunter," he said coldly. "You have." He indicated something behind us.

I turned.

About ten feet behind us were about twenty Hork-Bajir with Dracon beams leveled at us. There were also about two dozen Taxxons, gaping mouths snapping at the air as they stared at us, and the dead Hork-Bajir, with ravenous hunger in their eyes.

And standing behind them, instantly recognizable, was Visser Three.

This wouldn't be a contest. This would be a massacre, even with the two Hunters.

_So,_ Visser Three said silkily, _what do we have here? Another Hunter, and, of course, the Andalite bandits as well. This is just perfect._

_You think you've won, Visser?_ Jake asked, keeping his voice cool and focused, trying to sound as much like an Andalite as possible.

_Yes, Andalite, I think I have. I have all of you here now, plus another Hunter for my collection. With six Andalite host bodies and two Hunters, I'll be Visser One before the week is out!_

That's what you think, Visser, the other Hunter snarled, one of his front paws still placed against the human-Controller's throat, his additional curved claws pressed against the skin.

_Ah, 'Awkx Txepiva,_ Visser Three said. _Such a proud warrior, but so terrified of being imprisoned, of losing your free will again. So weak, although you seem fearsome to anyone looking at you. Except me, of course._ Me, and Rasant there, he said, indicating the human-Controller. _Him, perhaps, even better than me, because he has actually been inside your brain._

The human-Controller, Rasant, smirked coldly and chuckled.

_You won't win this, Visser,_ Jake said.

_On the contrary, Andalite. I already have._

The other Hunter, Txepiva, snarled at Visser Three, but it was clear he knew we couldn't win.

Unless…

I spoke to Jake in private thought-speak that only the six of us, plus Susan, could hear. _Jake, he doesn't know that Ax and Cassie are with us._

_Right,_ Jake said. _Ax, can you demorph without them seeing you?_

_Yes, Prince Jake. They are all focused on you. I think I can demorph without being seen if I do it fast enough._

_All right, do it,_ Jake said. _Cassie, you're with us. Attack when we do. Got it?_

_Yeah, I do,_ she answered.

_I am demorphing,_ Ax announced.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ax beginning to change, going from Hork-Bajir to Andalite. Cassie, meanwhile, was standing in a position that blocked any of the Yeerks from seeing Ax as he demorphed.

_I have finished demorphing,_ Ax called.

_And now, _Visser Three was saying, _you have two choices, Andalites. Either you can surrender, or you will–_

_NOW!_ Jake yelled.

We charged while Visser Three was still talking. At the same time, Cassie and Ax, now in his full Andalite form, sprang forward and hit the Yeerks from behind.

FWAPP! Ax swung his tail and removed a bladed Hork-Bajir arm that had been swinging towards him. Cassie parried a blow from a Hork-Bajir's wrist blade and slashed in retaliation, taking the Hork-Bajir down.

I sprang forward and slashed, splitting open a Taxxon down one flank.

"SKREEEEE!" it screeched, as its innards spilled out all over the ground. I turned and landed a kick with the talons on my feet, ripping open the abdomen of another Hork-Bajir.

Susan and Txepiva hurled themselves into battle. The human-Controller, Rasant, scrambled to his feet and hurried around the edge of the battle, towards the rest of the pool complex and safety.

Not so fast, Yeerk! Txepiva snarled.

And the gray Hunter jumped into the air, slammed his paws down atop a fallen Hork-Bajir, and hurled himself impossibly high into the air, soaring over the other Hork-Bajir and dropping down just a few feet away from Rasant.

And as the human-Controller turned and raised his Dracon beam to fire, Txepiva lunged forward, knocked Rasant off his feet, and sank his teeth into his enemy's throat.

Rasant's brief scream was abruptly cut off. Txepiva raised his head and snarled, the human-Controller's blood on his teeth, before he hurled himself back into battle.

The battle raged. Five Hork-Bajir, an Andalite and two Hunters against about two dozen Hork-Bajir and Taxxons.

But, sheltered behind his Hork-Bajir guards, Visser Three was morphing. Becoming some hideous alien creature that would kill us all.

We had to hit him in mid-morph.

_Marco!_ I yelled. _Let's go for the Visser!_

_On it!_ he yelled, taking down a Hork-Bajir who had been attacking him.

Marco, Susan, Txepiva and I broke free of the fight and charged towards the Visser and his Hork-Bajir guards.

_Marco, Txepiva, you take on the guards,_ I snapped. _Susan, let's take the Visser down._

_Yes, let's,_ she agreed, her eyes turning yellow. Txepiva's were still black.

We charged. Marco and Txepiva slammed into the guards, engaging them head-on, while Susan and I headed straight for the Visser.

Unfortunately, some of the Hork-Bajir got in the way.

Susan leaped forward and knocked one of the Hork-Bajir off his feet, sinking her teeth into his neck. I slashed with my wrist blade, carving through the flesh of one Hork-Bajir's chest. He dropped, and I turned to take on the next one.

Meanwhile, Visser Three was still morphing. I didn't know what it was, but it was big, reptilian, dark-colored and had more arms than it should have.

I fought my way towards him, but I couldn't get close enough to strike.

Then the whole thing started falling apart.

_AAAHHH!_ Marco yelled.

_MARCO!_

Marco and Txepiva were completely surrounded by Hork-Bajir. I saw blades slashing and heard a snarl followed by a cry of pain.

_Marco!_ Susan screamed. She turned and hurled herself at the Hork-Bajir. She slammed into the nearest one and knocked him sprawling to the ground, sinking her teeth into the back of his neck. She sprang off the Hork-Bajir she'd just killed and launched herself into the group of Hork-Bajir attacking Marco and Txepiva.

But now Visser Three was fully morphed. And even as I watched, one of the Hork-Bajir slashed at Susan's flank and she staggered in a spurt of blood. Another pulled out a Dracon beam and pressed the barrel against her head.

_Surrender, or she dies, Andalites,_ Visser Three hissed.

But as the Visser turned towards me, there was a blur of movement.

Like lightning, Ax leaped. His tail flashed as it struck, whipping the blade forward and pressing it against the morphed Visser's throat.

_Tell them not to fire,_ Ax said coolly. _If he pulls the trigger on that Dracon beam, I remove your head._

Everything stopped. The fight was frozen in place. Jake, Cassie and Tobias had been facing off against most of the Taxxons and the other Hork-Bajir. Now they stood facing their enemies, waiting for someone to make a move.

_A standoff?_ Visser Three screamed. _I won't allow this! I will not give up!_

_Then I will twitch my tail, and a moment later your head will hit the ground, Visser,_ Ax said, keeping his tail blade steady.

Txepiva was supporting Marco, who seemed barely able to stand upright. Blood was still flowing from a gash on his left flank, and his left arm hung nearly useless at his side from a slash on his shoulder.

_Jake, what do we do?_ I asked.

Jake was clearly thinking as hard as he could of a way to get us out of this. Finally, he spoke. _Ax, keep the Visser pinned down. Rachel, go help Txepiva with Marco._

_What do we do then?_ Marco asked weakly. _I can't demorph here. Not with all of them here._

_We're going to get them to release Susan, _Jake said, his voice even. _Then we're slowly going to back off. Ax, you can catch up with us, right?_

_Yes, Prince Jake,_ Ax said, never taking his eyes off Visser Three.

_Okay, Ax, you keep your tail blade against the Visser's throat while we back off. Once we've demorphed and remorphed to birds, I'll call you with thought-speak and you haul tail out of here as fast as you can. Got it?_

_Yes, Prince Jake._

I walked over to where Txepiva was supporting Marco. He placed his right arm on my shoulder to help support his weight, and we held him up as he limped over to the others. Jake, Cassie and Tobias quickly joined us. The Visser's Hork-Bajir and Taxxons didn't move. None of them were going anywhere as long as we had the Visser hostage.

_Release the other Hunter,_ Ax ordered, pointing to Susan with one of his hands, while pressing his tail blade harder against Visser Three's throat.

_Release her,_ the Visser hissed. The Hork-Bajir released his grip on Susan and lowered the Dracon beam. Susan dragged herself over to where we were standing.

_Now what, Andalites?_ Visser Three asked, his voice cold.

_Now,_ Jake said, _we will leave. But to prevent your people from following us, our friend here will keep his tail blade pressed against your throat until we are far enough away. Do not try to follow us, or he will kill you._

To us, Jake said, _Come on, guys. Follow me. Help Susan and Marco, and keep your eyes on the others. Ax, wait until we call you, and then run as fast as you can over here. Got it?_

_Yes, Prince Jake._

_Ax? Have I mentioned don't call me prince?_

_Yes, Prince Jake, you have._

We started walking away, helping Susan and Marco, both of which were badly injured and barely able to stand up. Ax kept his tail blade pressed against the Visser's throat as the rest of us hurried away.

Once we were out of sight, we all demorphed except Txepiva.

Susan and Marco hugged as soon as they were both demorphed and their wounds were healed.

"Oh, boy," I said sarcastically as soon as my human mouth was back. "This is not the time, guys. We've got to get out of here."

"Right," Marco said, grinning sheepishly.

_You are half human, child?_ Txepiva asked Susan.

"Yes," she answered. "My mother was human."

"Txepiva," Jake said, "do you have a bird morph?"

_Yes, I do. A bird of prey, actually. A golden eagle. I hope that will suffice?_

"It will most definitely suffice," Jake said, grinning. "Okay, everyone morph. Fast, fast, fast!"

We all began to morph. Tobias stayed Tobias, Jake morphed peregrine falcon, Cassie and Marco both morphed ospreys, Susan morphed Cooper's hawk, and I morphed bald eagle.

I also saw Txepiva morph, but watching him morph was odd.

Before my eyes, something that looked like a wolf was becoming a bird. A golden eagle, actually.

Once we were all fully morphed, Jake called out to Ax.

_Okay, Ax, get over here. Run! As fast as you can!_


	26. Chapter 26

**CHAPTER 26**

**Ax**

As soon as I heard Prince Jake's thought-speak call, a call only I could hear, I knew I would have to run as fast as I possibly could.

_Another time, Visser,_ I said. I withdrew my tail blade and bolted.

As I hurtled past the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, I heard the Visser roar, _AFTER THEM!_

I raced through the Yeerk pool complex at a full gallop. I heard the shouts of the Hork-Bajir behind me, and I increased my speed.

I turned one stalk eye to give myself a view of what was going on behind me and tucked my tail down to decrease wind resistance.

I saw a Hork-Bajir-Controller ahead of me. He saw me coming and raised his Dracon beam.

I shot past him, whipped my tail to the side, and caught his neck with my tail blade. The Hork-Bajir's head toppled off his shoulders and fell to the ground, followed a moment later by his headless body.

I burst into an open space behind a shed just in time to see the Animorphs and Hunters in bird morph, about to take off.

_Ax, morph!_ Prince Jake shouted.

I focused on the image of a northern harrier, my bird of prey morph.

Feathers sprouted all over my body, replacing blue-and-tan fur. My stalk eyes shriveled back into my head and disappeared, as a beak appeared in the lower portion of my face. My arms became wings, and my front legs were absorbed into the rest of my body, which was shrinking rapidly. The hooves on my hind legs became taloned feet.

As soon as I was finished morphing, I flapped my wings and rose into the air.

The eight of us rose swiftly over the Yeerk pool complex and headed towards the tunnel opening.

Then I heard a sound from down below.

TSEEEW! TSEEEW!

A Dracon beam flashed past me, searing the air, but missing. More shots echoed down below.

The Yeerks were shooting at us!

_Don't look back!_ Prince Jake shouted. _Just head for the tunnel._

TSEEEW!

TSEEEW!

TSEEEW!

_AAAHHH!_ Tobias yelled.

_AAAHHH!_ Cassie yelled.

I felt a burst of pain as a Dracon beam crackled past my left wing.

_We can make it!_ Prince Jake yelled.

And then we were there.

Prince Jake shot up into the tunnel entrance, followed by first Cassie, then Tobias, then Rachel, then me, then Marco, then Susan, and then Txepiva in his golden eagle morph.

We all demorphed, remorphed, and then flew back down the tunnel to the drainage chamber where Tobias and I had started digging.

We shot, one by one, out of the open manhole, landed outside and demorphed. I used my tail to flip the cover back into place.

"Well, we did it," Rachel said.

"Yeah, we did," Prince Jake said, a look of disquiet on his face. I could sympathize. We had freed the Hunter the Yeerks were holding captive, killed the Yeerk who was overseeing the project to capture the Hunters, and all escaped. But we had been very lucky. Any one of us, especially Marco and Susan, could be dead now if I hadn't been able to take the Visser by surprise and force a standoff.

Susan's eyes had turned green. She and Marco embraced, as did Prince Jake and Cassie. Rachel rolled her eyes at Susan and Marco, but then smiled at Tobias, who was sitting next to her.

I turned to the Hunter standing beside me. He had returned to his human form, which looked much like a tall male human with gray fur covering his skin and long black hair. He looked over at me. "So you are the Andalite. My name is 'Awkx Txepiva."

I am Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. But the humans address me as Ax.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Aximili."

_Likewise,_ I answered.

Prince Jake looked around. "Okay, the four of us," he said, indicating himself, Rachel, Marco and Cassie, "need to get back home immediately or we are definitely going to be grounded. We'll meet up tomorrow at the barn to decide what to do with Txepiva. Is that all right with you?" he asked Susan.

She nodded. "Yes. I'll take him to the forest, where he can sleep. We'll be there tomorrow afternoon."

"I'll call Erek," Marco said. "He should be there."

_Good idea, _Tobias put in.

"Okay, we'll meet at the barn tomorrow," Prince Jake said. He began to morph to falcon. We all quickly followed suit, all morphing to birds and flying off towards the others' homes.

Prince Jake and Rachel banked off after a while, flying in the direction of their own houses. The rest of us kept flying, heading for Cassie's barn and the forest beyond it.

We all landed at the barn and, with the exception of Tobias, we demorphed. Marco said good-bye to Susan, remorphed, and flew off towards his own house.

"You know, Txepiva," Cassie said, "you could sleep here in the barn. I have some empty stalls here that you could sleep in for the night."

Txepiva, who was presently in his human form, turned his head to her, surprise filling his features as his eyes turned violet. "You would… let me stay here?"

"If you need a place to stay tonight, sure," Cassie said. "I've got plenty of room in there for you."

Txepiva smiled. "Thank you, Cassie," he said. "You are very kind."

_That's the way she always is,_ Tobias said.

Txepiva nodded. "Then this Jake person is very lucky."

Cassie turned red when he said that. I believe it is what humans call a "blush." I am not an expert at human body language, as it is so different from that of an Andalite.

Cassie stared at Txepiva for a moment, unable to speak. Then she spoke, her voice strangled. "I… I… What do you mean?"

"Come, child," Txepiva said, his eyes shifting into green. "I see the way you two behave around each other. I am familiar with such things. It is the same as this young one and the human called Marco."

Now Susan's face turned red, and her eyes turned pink. It is amazing how easily embarrassed young humans, both male and female, can become when the notion of relationships is brought up. Apparently, the same is true for Hunters.

"So, anyway, Txepiva," Cassie said, clearly desperately trying to change the topic of discussion, "come on in and I'll show you where you can sleep."

"I'll go in too," Susan volunteered. "I can tell where a Hunter would be comfortable."

Cassie, Susan and Txepiva walked into the barn and closed the door behind them. I morphed to harrier, and Tobias and I flew off towards the forest.

_It's really amazing how embarrassed they got when Txepiva mentioned their relationships, wasn't it?_ Tobias said.

_Yes,_ I said. _However, I have noticed the type of actions he was talking about. And I believe I have noticed the same thing between them. And also between you and Rachel._

He slowed noticeably in his flight. _Um… what?_

_Never mind,_ I said. _We should probably be going._


	27. Chapter 27

**CHAPTER 27**

**Cassie**

We met up at the barn the next day.

Susan and I had set Txepiva up in one of the empty stalls the previous day. We'd brought food out from the house and given him several bottles of water, all of which he'd eaten. He must not have been fed enough when he was at the Yeerk pool.

Susan, Tobias and Ax arrived first, all of them in bird morph. Tobias reported that Susan's flying was getting much better. She'd made it all the way to the barn without crashing into anything.

Susan and Ax had demorphed, Ax had morphed to human, and we'd waited for the others to arrive.

Jake had arrived next, followed by Rachel, and then Marco. He had immediately sat down next to Susan.

Erek arrived last. He did a double take and was momentarily rendered speechless by the sight of Txepiva in human form; a tall, muscular man with shoulder-length black hair, curved claws coming out of the backs of his hands, and gray fur covering his skin.

Erek got over his shock fast.

"You're a full Hunter?" he asked, amazement in his tone.

"Some human DNA, which is how I'm able to become human like this, but mostly, yes. Both of my parents were Hunters. I did have a few humans in the family tree, but mostly it was Hunters."

"Fascinating," Erek said.

"Who is this?" Txepiva asked me.

In reply, Erek switched off his hologram. Txepiva's jaw dropped and his eyes flashed purple as he stared open-mouthed at Erek.

"Creator!" he gasped.

Erek reactivated his hologram and his human image returned. "Yes," he said, smiling. "I am a Chee. Your species knows us as the Creators, and our creators, the Pemalites, as the Ancestors."

"Unbelievable," Txepiva whispered. His eyes turned silver as he stared at Erek.

"It seems that way, but I guarantee, it is real," Susan said, her eyes green.

Txepiva smiled, his eyes turning green, then silver, then back to green again.

"So… now what?" Marco asked.

"We need to put Txepiva into the forest, somewhere where the Yeerks won't find him," I said. "He needs to be able to run freely in his real home."

_Well, we may not have to worry about that anymore,_ Tobias said from the rafters. _I went over to the place where the Yeerks had their camp for capturing wolves. It's deserted. The Yeerks pulled everything and everyone out._

"We did it!" Rachel cheered. "I guess we wrecked their project more than we thought."

_We did do quite a lot of damage,_ Ax remarked. _We managed to free the one Hunter they had prisoner, we severely damaged their operation in the forest, and Txepiva killed the Yeerk running the project. That may have convinced Visser Three to shut down the project altogether._

"I would say that it is something else," Txepiva said. "I believe that Visser Three shut down the project for a different reason."

"What would that be?" Susan asked.

"I had Rasant in my brain at one point, remember. That meant that I had access to all of his memories, just as he had access to mine. Rasant knew that Visser Three had not yet told the Council of Thirteen about the existence of the Hunters or his plan to capture them. In order for them to believe him, he would need proof that the Hunters actually existed. That was what he was planning to use me for. But without any Hunters prisoner, Visser Three has no proof that this plan was anything more than a fool's errand, and that the Council would most likely demote him for wasting time and effort on a project that has turned up no evidence. Visser Three would rather cease his efforts to capture the Hunters than have to explain his failure to the Council of Thirteen."

"Yeah, that sounds like the Visser we all know and love," Marco said sarcastically.

"If that is the case, then it would seem that the Hunters have nothing further to worry about," Erek said. "At the moment, it would seem that the more important thing would be establishing a permanent alliance between the Hunters and us against the Yeerks. We need them if we are to be victorious in this war."

"I would suggest that the best way this could be attained is by sending Txepiva and myself to speak to the other Chee again," Susan said. "They need to know everything. The rest of our Creators all have the right to know exactly what is happening."

Txepiva nodded. "I will go with you to speak to your companions. The Hunters must be reunited with our creators."

"I'll go, too," Susan said. "We should both be there for this."

"We'll go tomorrow afternoon," Erek said. "I can send out a signal over the Chee-net that will let them all know to come there."

"Okay," Jake said. "We'll meet back here tomorrow to see how it went. Good luck."

"There won't be a problem," Erek said. "The other Chee accepted Susan readily enough. They should accept Txepiva just as easily."

"Let's hope so," Rachel said.

"Oh, take a chill pill, Rachel," Marco said, turning to face her and sprawling back on the hay bale he was sitting on. "It'll be fine. Relax once in a while."

"Like you, you mean?" Rachel asked, a tone of sarcasm in her voice.

"Exactly," Marco said, grinning at her irritated expression.


	28. Chapter 28

**CHAPTER 28**

**Jake**

The next afternoon, after Erek, Susan and Txepiva had gone to see the other Chee, the six of us met up over the forest as birds of prey.

Tobias and Ax were waiting for us, Tobias in his "normal" hawk body, and Ax in his harrier morph. Rachel, Cassie, Marco and I all arrived more or less at the same time, and the six of us just circled around for a while, discussing what we should do next.

_I still think it would be best if we let Txepiva just live in the forest near the barn,_ Cassie said. _I mean, it's close to us, but not so close that he wouldn't have any space._

_There's a problem with that,_ Tobias said. _The last thing we want is for the Yeerks to figure out that the Hunters are still around here. Visser Three would expect any Hunters in the area to have left by now, gone as far away from the Yeerks as they could get. If the Yeerks spot any of the Hunters, they'll know that the Hunters are still here and they might start the project up again._

_He's right,_ Rachel seconded. _I mean, don't get me wrong, I think the Hunters deserve to be able to help us in this fight, and frankly, we may need them, but I think that it's better if we give the Yeerks absolutely no reason to restart that project to capture the Hunters._

_Yes,_ Ax said calmly. _The Hunters could be very useful, even vital in our fight, but for the near future, at least, they need to disappear, so the Yeerks will not be tempted to go hunting for them again._

_I agree that the Hunters need to stay off the Yeerks' radar, _Marco put in, _but…_ He paused.

_But you don't think they should leave the area? _Cassie asked.

_Right. I mean, you're right that the Yeerks can't be allowed to see any of them, but I don't think the Hunters should leave. The Chee can help them stay hidden, and so can we. They don't have to leave._

_Marco, you are so transparent sometimes,_ Rachel said. _You don't think the Hunters should leave because you don't want your "girlfriend" to leave town and disappear._

_That's not true!_ Marco protested. _I mean, yes, that's one of the reasons, but there are other reasons too!_

_Look,_ I said. _Bottom line: This is the Hunters' decision. It's up to Susan, Txepiva, and the rest of the Hunters whether they leave or not. We can't choose for them. They have to decide for themselves what they should do._

_I second that statement, Prince Jake,_ Ax said.

_Okay, so let's get back to the barn and meet up with Susan, Txepiva and Erek,_ I said. _Once we hear what happened at their meeting with the Chee, we'll decide what we should do next._

We arrived back at the barn a few minutes later and demorphed inside. Erek, Susan and Txepiva arrived several minutes later. Both Susan's and Txepiva's eyes were green. I took this as a good sign, since I'd learned enough about the different eye colors of Hunters to know that green was the color for happiness.

_So, how'd it go?_ Tobias asked from the rafters.

"Excellent," Erek declared, pride filling his voice. "The Chee responded even better than I had hoped. We all agreed that we will do anything in our power to help keep the Hunters hidden from the Yeerks."

"Good," I said. "But we do have a question for the two of you." I indicated Susan and Txepiva. "The Hunters need to decide whether or not you should leave the area."

"Why would we leave?" Susan asked, her eyes turning violet and then shifting into teal, along with Txepiva's.

"Because if you leave the area, the Yeerks won't have another chance of capturing any of you," I said. "On the other hand, leaving would also mean that you wouldn't be able to join in the fight against the Yeerks."

"These are both good points," Txepiva declared. "However, I believe I already know what the answer of the other Hunters living in this area would be."

"As do I," Susan said softly. "No Hunter would flee from a battle, even one against an enemy as powerful as the Yeerks. Especially not after hearing the story of what Txepiva experienced as a prisoner of the Yeerks."

"Yes," Txepiva agreed. "I will go into the forest now. I can find the other Hunters that live in this area and spread my message. I will be back tomorrow with their answers to your question."

"All right," I said. "We'll meet up tomorrow so you can tell us what you found. Good luck finding them in one night, though."

Txepiva smiled, and his eyes turned green. "That will not be a problem, Jake. It is quite easy for a Hunter to find another Hunter, especially when I know where to look."

The nine of us exited the barn. Fortunately, Cassie's parents weren't around, because this definitely looked weird. Four humans, a red-tailed hawk, an Andalite, a girl with a tail and ears, Txepiva in his fur-covered human form, and Erek, his true appearance hidden by his hologram.

Txepiva began to change swiftly, until a gray-furred Hunter was standing where he had been.

_I will be back by tomorrow afternoon,_ Txepiva said in thought-speak. _Thank you for rescuing me, Jake. Thank you, all of you. Especially you, child._ His gaze rested on Susan. _You have much to learn, but you have done better than much more experienced Hunters could have accomplished._

"Thank you," she said softly.

I looked into Txepiva's green eyes. "We'll see you here tomorrow. Good luck."

_Thank you._

Txepiva began to run. Faster and faster, until he was a gray blur racing across the field towards the trees, his run fast, effortless and fluid. He shot into the forest like a bullet and blew through the trees, barely disturbing a single leaf as he passed, and was gone.


	29. Chapter 29

**CHAPTER 29**

**Susan**

The next afternoon, the eight of us met back at the barn. I arrived later than the others. I had morphed to Cooper's hawk at my cabin in the woods and practiced my flying skills on the way over. It was getting much easier than it had been at first. I was nowhere near as graceful as the other Animorphs were in flight, but I was getting the hang of it. I did not crash a single time on the way over, though I had some close calls and had been forced to perform sharp turns to prevent from smashing into trees. However, the fact that I'd made it all this way without crashing was a first for me. It proved that I was getting better at this. I still wasn't very good, but at least I wasn't dangerous to anything in the air near me anymore, and I was flying in more or less the way a bird of prey should be flying.

I landed outside the barn, demorphed, and walked in. All of the Animorphs and Erek were sitting around, talking.

I sat down next to Marco on a bale of hay. He smiled at me, and I smiled back, my eyes flaring bright green. I hadn't been this happy in a long time. Not since before my mother had died.

Several minutes later, Txepiva arrived. He must have changed form outside, because he entered the barn in his human form.

"So, Txepiva, how did it go?" Jake asked. Jake reminds me of my father. They both have the unmistakable aura of command about them, as if they were born to be leaders. My father's leadership talent, however, was not as focused toward any one thing as Jake's was. I knew Jake had been forced to make hard decisions during the war against the Yeerks, and I couldn't blame him for being stressed at times by the responsibilities of being the leader of the Animorphs.

Txepiva smiled, and his eyes flashed green. "It went better than I had dared to hope it would. The other Hunters, all of the ones I could contact in one night, agreed as one that we cannot leave. We will stand with our creators and our new allies, and we will fight the Yeerks until this menace has been destroyed once and for all."

Rachel smiled. "I like the way your people think, Txepiva."

Txepiva nodded to her and smiled. "You would make a good Hunter, Rachel. You have a warrior's heart and a hunter's mind. These are admirable qualities."

Rachel grinned. Marco rolled his eyes dramatically, but she ignored him.

"So, in short, the Chee are all with us?" Jake asked.

Erek nodded. "And, actually, we may be able to hide the Hunters better here than if they left. You should know, Jake, that if we Chee hide something, it almost always stays hidden."

_He is right,_ Ax said. _This may be the alternative we need. If the Chee can conceal the Hunters, they will not have to leave and can continue helping us in the fight._

"Right," Cassie said. "We need to do this. This is our best chance for the Hunters to have a future."

Txepiva and I considered the others' words. I knew that these Animorphs had our best interests in mind, but it was we Hunters who would have to make the decision.

I looked at Txepiva and spoke quietly to him. "What should we do?"

"We cannot leave," he replied, his eyes shifting into yellow. "Our people deserve to stay and fight, and everyone I spoke with agreed on that."

"Yes," I agreed softly.

Txepiva and I turned towards the others.

"We will stay," Txepiva announced, his eyes shifting into green.

"And we will fight with you to defeat the Yeerks," I finished.

Marco smiled at me, and I returned it. To tell the truth, Marco was one of the reasons why I had decided to stay. There were other reasons, of course, but he was one of the biggest reasons.

"Look," Jake said, "this plan should work. But we need a place where the Hunters can stay and not be spotted by the Yeerks."

_What about the valley? _Tobias suggested.

I was confused. What valley was he talking about? My eyes turned teal and, looking over at Txepiva, I saw that his had turned teal as well. This meant that he was just as confused as I was.

The Animorphs, however, did not seem nearly as confused. Marco and Rachel seemed confused for a few seconds, but then realization clearly hit them.

"You mean the Hork-Bajir valley?" Rachel asked.

_Yeah,_ Tobias said. _It's perfect. It's high up in the mountains, a long way from the Yeerk pool and the city, and we know it works because we already have the Hork-Bajir hidden there. It would be perfect for the Hunters._

_I believe that Tobias is correct, Prince Jake,_ Ax said.

"Excuse me, but I am confused," I said. "What is the Hork-Bajir valley?"

"The Hork-Bajir valley," Marco explained, "is a safe, secluded valley up in the mountains. We know about it because there is a colony of free Hork-Bajir hiding there. We brought them to that valley ourselves, and so far they've been completely undetected there. We think it would be a good place for the Hunters to live."

_Yeah,_ Tobias agreed. _You could still hunt in the surrounding forest, but you could return to the valley to use it as a place to rest and build homes for yourselves._

I looked over at Txepiva. Our eyes both shifted into green. This valley sounded like a place that would be perfect for the Hunters to make a home for ourselves.

"You'd be sharing it with the free Hork-Bajir, of course," Rachel said, "but…" She shrugged. "That sounds like a small price to pay for a safe sanctuary."

I nodded. "This place sounds excellent. We could easily make a home in this valley, regardless of what "neighbors" we have."

Txepiva grinned. "I can speak with the other Hunters to inform them of this. We can then guide them to this place."

_I'll help,_ Tobias offered. _I can find the place easier than anyone else can._

Txepiva looked up at Tobias and nodded. "Very well, my friends. Today, we will lead the Hunters to our new home."


	30. Chapter 30

**CHAPTER 30**

**Marco**

Well, two days later, we met at the beach. Well, the six of us, plus Susan, anyway. Txepiva was busy helping the other Hunters get settled in their new home in the Hork-Bajir valley.

Tobias had led Txepiva and Susan to the valley the previous day. That was both to make sure that the Hork-Bajir living there understood that they would soon be receiving some new neighbors, and to make sure that Txepiva and Susan would be able to find their way back without our help. Erek had gone to speak with the other Chee to discuss arrangements for meeting with the Hunters so that the two species could learn more from each other and become closer.

The seven of us were walking down the beach. Ax and Tobias were in their human morphs, as an Andalite and a hawk strolling down the beach with us would definitely have drawn attention from the lifeguards.

Susan was wearing her baseball cap and had her tail tucked up under her shirt, so she looked perfectly normal. Just a normal girl, walking casually down the beach.

It seemed like all seven of us were walking together, but if you actually looked, you could see clearly that Jake was walking with Cassie, Rachel was walking with Tobias, and I was walking with Susan.

"So all of the Hunters have been moved into the valley?" Jake asked Tobias. Tobias had been at the valley all day yesterday and through most of today to bring in all of the arriving Hunters and show them where they were going to be staying. I'd heard from Tobias that Susan's father had arrived the previous afternoon with Susan.

"Yep," Tobias answered. "All of the Hunters that Txepiva and Susan could contact are now safely hidden in the valley. The Hork-Bajir adjusted to living with their new neighbors relatively easier than we thought. It was fairly easy, especially since the Hork-Bajir knew we were the ones who brought the Hunters there. And also when we told the Hork-Bajir that the Hunters were just as much enemies of the Yeerks as we are."

"Excellent," Ax said. "Ex. Ex. Cellent. Ent."

Ax in human morph keeps you busy. He can't get over how insanely cool it is to be able to make sounds with a mouth. He also doesn't seem to get how weird it seems to us.

Susan smiled. "My father was among the last Hunters to move into the valley. He approved of what I was trying to do." Her eyes focused on me and turned pink briefly before they became green again. "And on my choice to stay and fight with you and the others."

I grinned. "Well, your dad should be proud of you for doing the right thing, Susan."

She smiled back, then her eyes turned pink again.

"You know, the main reason I decided to stay wasn't just to fight the Yeerks."

I smiled. I had a feeling I knew what she was talking about.

Susan's eyes turned green and she grinned. "I guess you know what my real reason was, right?"

"I think I can guess," I said, smiling.

Rachel, a few feet away, rolled her eyes and made a gagging noise, but I ignored her.

Cassie gave Rachel a look, and she turned away from us. We kept walking farther down the beach.

It was a beautiful day, and I couldn't remember a time when I'd been happier. But, on the other hand, I couldn't help feeling like I hadn't done all I could have. If I had told the others about Susan earlier, we might have been able to save Txepiva earlier, and that fight in the Yeerk pool complex might not have happened.

Susan saw the expression on my face.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her eyes turning teal.

"I was just thinking…"

"Thinking about what, Marco?" she asked. I turned to face her.

"I was thinking that if I'd told my friends that you were a Hunter earlier, or if we hadn't pulled that stunt with you pretending to be me, we might have gotten this whole thing done easier. We might not have had to go through that fight at the Yeerk pool to rescue Txepiva."

"Yes," she answered, her eyes turning gray and then green, "but we also might not have been able to rescue Txepiva at all if that had happened. We might have failed, and the Yeerks might have captured more of the Hunters. As shaky as this was, it worked out in the end. Don't worry over what might have happened. The past is the past, Marco, and nothing we can do can change that. So do yourself a favor. Let it go."


	31. Epilogue

Hunter Emotion Eye Colors:

White – Terrified

Blue – Sad

Green – Happy

Orange – Nervous

Red – Angry

Yellow – Focused

Violet – Surprised

Purple – Shocked

Pink – Embarrassed

Gray – Tired/Relieved

Teal – Confused

Turquoise – Intoxicated

Black – Murderous

Brown – Hungry/Thirsty

Silver – Awe

Pale gray – Despair/Lack of hope


End file.
